Had City lost, the gap would have been four points with nine games remaining and the Blues’ destiny would have no longer been in their own hands.
Now, Nasri believes the Reds will be looking nervously over their shoulder with City once again breathing down their necks – and a draw or better at Stoke will put Roberto Mancini’s men back at the summit by the time United play Fulham on Monday.
“If we win all our games, we win the title,” smiled Nasri. “We have believed in ourselves since the first game of the season and we showed great character against Lisbon and again when we beat Chelsea.
It’s a signal to United that we are here and we will be here until the end. I am sure we can win the last nine games and if we do it, we will be champions
...Samir Nasri
“Before Wednesday we were four points behind them, but our fans were up for it and the atmosphere was electric. It will be like this until the end and that will be really good for us because we will play with an extra player with that sort of backing.”
Nasri turned in a man-of-the-match performance against Chelsea, scoring a dramatic late winner – his fifth goal of the season – and he believes he is hitting somewhere near his best form at exactly the right time.
“From the first minute against Chelsea I was feeling really good and tried to be attacking by dribbling, passing and shooting as much as I could, and that’s what I did. I was quite happy with my performance.
“It’s always special to score, especially in that kind of game and after going 1-0 down. It was important that we won to stay in touch with United after their result at the weekend.
“You have to do something special in this kind of game and Carlos did that with his assist when I scored, and Sergio did it with the penalty. You need that something extra at times like that – the goals will not fall from the sky.”
With yet another tricky game against Stoke on the horizon, Nasri expects the trip to the Britannia Stadium to be every bit as difficult as the Chelsea match in midweek.
“We have to play our football if we want to beat them,” he said. “If we try to play like them we won’t win, because they are the best at doing what they do.
“They put the ball in the air and fight hard, but we have different qualities. If we play the same game that we played at home against them, we will beat them – but we need to be at our best to do that.”
