Barry pays tribute to Mancini

Gareth Barry believes Manchester City’s resurgence in the Premier League title race is due to Roberto Mancini lifting pressure from his players.

The Italian boss repeatedly insisted Manchester United were favourites in the title race, even after Vincent Kompany’s first-half header against United put City on top of the table at the end of April.

Barry said Mancini showed his experience of title run-ins, and thinks his mind games eased the tension in the City camp.

“We’ve got an experienced team, an experienced manager, I’m confident we can get the job done,” Barry told The Telegraph.

“He’s (Mancini) taken lot of the pressure off the players, that’s worked really well for us. We’ve really raised our game since a couple of disappointing results.

“It looked like we were running away with it at one point, then at one stage bookies were paying out on Manchester United to have won the title.”

Victory against QPR on Sunday will secure a first league title for the blue half of Manchester in 44 years.

Barry said the week had been dominated by the thought of lifting the title and he can feel the weight of expectation among the City fans.

“Supporters let you know how long it’s been and it does build the tension around the place,” he said.

“But before the season if anyone had said we’d have a home game against QPR to get three points to win the Premier League title, we’d have snapped their hands off to be in this position.

“I’d be lying to say I’ve not thought about (the title) this week, you play all these years to be in a position like this.”