The Blues now face back-to-back away trips to middle of the table duo Sunderland and Fulham before a much anticipated return to CoMs for four games out of the following five.
It is a run of matches that could well define the campaign and Mancini is anxious that his men do not rest on the laurels so hard won at Stamford Bridge in the 4-2 win over Chelsea.
“It’s a nice memory, it was a great game and the award I received for performance of the week is for the players, not for me,” stressed the manager.
“They played very, very well but now that’s all finished. It won’t be important for the next game, it will not influence the result on Sunday and Sunderland had a great win too on Tuesday night.
“Chelsea is in the past and while we should take great confidence from that win we must only think about Sunderland, because that’s going to be a tough match.
“We have a good chance for the top four, but it all depends on us and what we do. It is on our own hands to finish fourth.
“If we play like we did against Chelsea, and how we did at times in other recent games, we have a real opportunity to qualify for the Champions League. It’s important that now we prepare well for Sunderland.
I felt that even though we lost at Stoke in the FA Cup replay we played some of our best football in that game
...Roberto Mancini
“All the players are back now and we are able to work hard for the rest of this week. If we get our preparations for the next game right then we can do a good job at Sunderland.”
City will be without the suspended Emmanuel Adebayor for the trip to the Stadium of Light on Sunday and Martin Petrov’s knee injury rules him out. However, Patrick Vieira returns after serving his three-match ban.
The Blues have a great record against the men from Wearside having won the last nine meetings between the sides.
