Manchester, United Kingdom: Manuel Pellegrini insists it is far too early for Manchester City to get carried away despite opening up an eight-point lead over Chelsea in the Premier League title race.
Pellegrini’s side have maximum points from four matches after beating Watford 2-0 at Eastlands on Saturday.
Second-half goals from Raheem Sterling and Fernandinho gave City a three-point advantage at the top of the table, ahead of second-placed Crystal Palace, who earned a surprise 2-1 victory over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea, last season’s champions, have collected just four points from their first four games, and have slipped well behind City, who beat them 3-0 two weeks ago.
Pellegrini, though, has cautioned against any dreams of title glory — pointing out that City led Chelsea on goal difference in January of last season, but ended the season eight points behind Jose Mourinho’s side.
“We are not thinking about what happened with Chelsea. It’s always important to create a gap with important teams,” Pellegrini said.
“But we are just starting the season. We’ve only played four games. Remember that last season we finished eight points behind Chelsea, yet in January we had exactly the same number of points and we [were] top of the table.
“So it’s important to think game by game, and not to think about other rivals.”
Pellegrini refused to be drawn afterwards on how soon a £52 million (Dh294 million) deal for Wolfsburg midfielder Kevin De Bruyne will be completed.
He does, though, think City will benefit this season from the addition of Sterling, signed for £49 million from Liverpool in July.
The England winger’s goal against Watford was his first in a competitive game for his new club and he will soon make people forget about his large price tag, according to his manager.
“I hope he will score more goals than he did with Liverpool. I think that playing with creative players such as Sergio Aguero, Samir Nasri, David Silva and Yaya Toure will help him improve a lot,” Pellegrini said.
“It will help him score more goals, but also the good thing about Sterling is that he is not just about scoring. He works a lot during the whole game.
“He gives us pace in one-against-one situations that maybe we didn’t have last season, so there are a lot of reasons why we bought him.
“The important thing is that he is demonstrating that he is not an expensive player, he is a good player.”
Watford’s defeat was their first in the Premier League since winning promotion from the Championship last season.
But Quique Flores’s side have yet to win after drawing their opening three games, and have now not scored in four league and cup matches.
“It’s difficult to score. We need to be better when we get chances. But I am not worried. It is normal. We have to be positive, to work hard,” Flores said.
The Watford boss still needs to trim his squad before submitting a final 25-man list to the Premier League this coming week, although he has already made moves in that direction by sending defender Daniel Pudil to Sheffield Wednesday on loan.
But Flores admitted: “It’s not easy to work with 30 players on the training ground. It’s difficult for me.
“I need to keep the mentality of the players high, and that’s difficult when there are so many players. But I am happy with the balance of the squad I have.”
