James Milner hopes Manchester City can seize the initiative in the title race after wiping out Chelsea’s lead. Manuel Pellegrini’s side trailed the Londoners by eight points in November but a run a run of 13 games unbeaten in all competitions has helped them draw level with Jose Mourinhos side at the top of the league. City travel to Everton on Saturday before hosting Arsenal the following week and then ending the month with a much-anticipated clash against their title rivals. But despite City’s rich run of form, Milner is taking nothing for granted. Hopefully well be looking to open up a little gap of our own, said Milner, who underlined his importance to the side with a vital double in Sundays FA Cup win over Sheffield Wednesday. You look at this run (ahead) and people think it is tougher than the games we had over Christmas but - it is an old cliché in the Premier League - there are form teams and out-of-form teams. Every game is difficult. Youve got teams at the bottom who look and think, Were going to win that game - look at Burnley coming here and how well they played. Sometimes it is easier to play against teams who are mid-table and pushing for Europe and are moving it around a lot more. Who knows what an easy game is? It is the Premier League. All we can do is concentrate on our games and if we can get the results we want to get, it depends on how Chelsea do. Milner feels people were too quick to write City off as Chelsea made all the early running but the England international claims there is no satisfaction to be taken from proving critics wrong - because the job is not yet completed. We might have been written off but we havent won the league, Milner added. It is all right being in the race in January, but you need to be in there in May. But we have been there before and what is said outside the camp is irrelevant to us. We have got that experience. We have been there before. We were written off in March or April the first time but we won it, we turned it round. That experience helps. Milners performance at the weekend emphasised why the club are keen to get him to sign a new contract. With City trailing 1-0 to the Championship side, the midfielder was asked to reprise the centre-forward role he played during December due to injuries. He responded with the two goals that turned around the third-round tie, his dramatic winner coming in injury time. The versatile 29-year-old may be asked to switch positions once again in the coming weeks with central midfielder Yaya Toure on Africa Cup of Nations duty with the Ivory Coast. We will see what the manager wants to do,” Milner said. “Yaya is a big miss for us because of what he has done at the club but we have to deal with that and carry on this run we have been on.
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 11:38:26 +0000