MAN CITY 2, WEST HAM 0
Manuel Pellegrini has a thirst for more silverware after he clinched his first Barclays Premier League title as manager of Manchester City.
After City were crowned champions on the last day for the second time in three seasons,
Pellegrini, who is known as ‘The Engineer,’ said: “Big teams cannot be satisfied with one title.
“It’s very important. Celebrate today and tomorrow and on Tuesday start working for next season because this club deserves more titles.”
Pellegrini also paid tribute to his players adding: “I think that I manager a great group of players, a great institution and great fans.
“It was a special season for us. We didn’t start very well, but I think the most important thing we did this year is that we we finished playing our sixth away game, we had four points from 18 and I told the players we had to make a change.
“They believed in me and I think from then until now we are the team with the most points away. They always believed what I told them how I wanted to play and how I think football should be.”
Pellegrini added that his team also showed character late in the campaign after the defeat at Liverpool and home draw against Sunderland.
He said: “We didn’t have the best week, but we never gave up.
“We won our last five games and at the end of the season we were the team with the most points.”
Pellegrini, the first non European manager to win the Premier League,
He continued: “This club has been working well for four years.They were a big team with the fans, but were not fighting for the title.
“Now that has changed and the owner has worked in a humble way to improve.
“With Mancini, City won the title and cup and we are always trying to improve and we will try to continue to win titles.”
There was no repeat of the last-day drama of 2011/12 as City recorded a comfortable victory against West Ham at the Etihad Stadium where it look an injury-time goal from Sergio Aguero for them to beat QPR and snatch the first championship in the Premier League era on goal difference from Manchester United.
This time City were never troubled as goals from Samir Nasri and Vincent Kompany gave City a winning margin of two points as a slip up never looked like happening in this Premier League campaign of remarkable twists and turns.
City, who had seven survivors from the side which kicked off against QPR two seasons ago, held their nerve as those players had clearly benefited from the experience of that nervy last day as the Hammers didn’t have a shot on target in the whole game.
There had been a slight possibility City could have blown the title had they lost to West Ham and Liverpool beaten Newcastle, but that scenario never looked like happening.
And the only slight disappointment was that City failed to score three times which would have equalled Chelsea’s record in the Premier League era of 103 goals.
Argentinian ace Aguero returned after injury for James Milner, the one change from the side which beat Aston Villa 4-0 in midweek. City fans were in a celebratory mood well before the start and that jubilation increased news filtered to them that Newcastle had taken the lead at Liverpool and Cardiff were ahead against Chelsea.
It look City almost 18 minutes to force a save from Adrian when Aguero shot straight at keeper Adrian who minutes produced a brilliant save to turn over a 35-yard drive from Aleksandar Kolarov.
City were finding it tough to find a way through a well marshalled Hammers’ defence comprising two compact banks of four which left little space for them to exploit.
The breakthrough came in the 39th minute when Nasri scored a goal out of nothing, a speculative 25-yard drive which flew in off the upright for his 11th goal of the campaign.
And they twice almost added a second goal before the break. Aguero glanced header wide from Nasri’s free kick and then David Silva’s shot deflected off James Tomkins and on to the upright.
City made the perfect start to the second period doubling their advantage within four minutes. Edin Dzeko flicked on Nasri’s corner and Kompany rifled home the loose ball from six yards for his fifth goal of the season.
There were chances to win by a wider margin as Silva had a shot deflected for a corner, Aguero missed a sitter from in front of goal and Nasri’s effort was well kept out by the legs of Adrian.