Kolo confident of handling intense pressure

(GSM) – Manchester City’s Kolo Toure believes that he is good enough to deal with pressures surrounding City’s hopes of qualifying for the Champions League.

The skipper was as frustrated as anyone by the setback of last Wednesday’s defeat to Everton, but now he & the rest of the squad know they have a chance to get the quest for fourth place back on track against Wigan on Monday night.

A win over Wigan would keep City in touch with Spurs and Kolo is keen to shrug off the Everton disappointment in the quest for a place in Europe’s top club competition.

Kolo said, “We all want to finish in fourth place, as players we want to give everything to the club. We want to show that, and it’s difficult especially when you don’t win at home.”

He is confident of handling pressure, “I think that pressure when you are trying to improve is normal, we are really trying to do something this season.”

Kolo has no time for the argument that City need time to knit together after the number of signings that the Club made, including his arrival from Arsenal last summer.

He believes qualifying for the Champions League is big achievement, “We can’t use any excuses when we are trying to get into fourth place. We have got to try to win every game to get there, we can see Tottenham doing well and we know the standard of the competition is really high. But that’s good for us, and if we can qualify for the Champions League that would be a really big achievement for us.”

“The Premier League is a really tough, tough competition. Every team fights so hard, look how tough it was to play against Stoke. There are definitely no easy games in the Premier League. I think the Manager knew that before he came here, but he had his own ideas when he came here and I think he was confident. He’s a manager who has won trophies and he knows how to make a team win things,” he explained with confidence.