Mancini urges team not to lose focus

Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini wants his team to be focused as they aim for four straight wins at home to Wigan on Saturday.

City are second on the English Premier League table – level on points with leaders Manchester United – and have scored 12 goals in their opening three games, throwing down the gauntlet to the champions that their city rivals are a title threat.

Six of those strikes have come from Bosnian forward Edin Dzeko, who has started the campaign in fine form, having only found the net twice in the league last season.

Mancini did not want to harp on his side’s good form but was wary of dropping points to last season’s 16th-placed outfit.

“Wigan have a fantastic manager (Roberto Martinez) and play football very well. There is always a risk because we want to attack, we want to play football and we want to score that we will have a problem. Every game that we played against Wigan in the past we had a problem. We won but we had a problem,” Mancini said.

“If we don’t have a good attitude, good concentration and think it’s easy then I think we’ll struggle. It’s important to have the same attitude that we’ve had in the first three games.”

On Dzeko’s dazzling form, Mancini was glowing with his praise, predicting his main front man to build on his tally as the season progresses.

“Edin is a fantastic striker. He’s scored everywhere he’s been. When he came here last season he had a problem like all players who come to England from different leagues, like David Silva for the first few months last year. But I’m sure this year Edin can score a lot of goals for us,” the City boss said.

Mancini echoed the comments of rival manager Sir Alex Ferguson, stating that there are six teams in the running for the Premier League title.

“At this moment it’s City, United, Chelsea and Liverpool at the top of the table. But I think that Arsenal and Tottenham could arrive at the top in the next few weeks because they’re very good teams. But I think six teams are in with a chance of winning the Premier League,” he said.