Monday 20 April 2015 11:12, UK
Manchester City’s 2-0 win over West Ham could now provide the champions with the momentum to push on and claim second place in the Premier League ahead of rivals Arsenal and United, says Sky Sports pundit and Niall Quinn.
City’s victory moved them to within a point of city rivals Manchester United in third and two behind second-placed Arsenal, albeit having played a game more than Arsene Wenger’s team, as they approach the business end of the season.
“City got back on track,” Quinn, speaking to Sky Sports' Ed Chamberlin in a special Super Sunday audio blog, said. “Yaya Toure, who we have questioned in recent weeks, and people have also questioned his authority in the City team, was excellent, as were all the players in the team.
“They were right back to the City we know and coming away from the game, I feel better in terms of [Manuel] Pellegrini’s job and for City’s fans, who in the past few weeks may have felt their club was sliding a little bit. So it was good to see that.
“City could get back past United and even Arsenal up into a challenging position and it is certainly an interesting top-four battle now. I think they can finish with heads a little higher than they were in the last few weeks.”
Not only that, but Quinn says a strong finish to the season will also give the under-pressure Pellegrini some important breathing space with his bosses in Abu Dhabi come the summer.
“Pellegrini now has a hope of fighting his corner and getting a bit more backing from those behind him, moving on a couple of players and starting again,” said Quinn. “I think he got his respect back from some of us in the media today.
“We questioned him after their Champions League exit, his tactics and his players’ desire, but today they showed when they are on song how good they are. Now he can have that chat in the summer with the owners to say 'you do not need [Jurgen] Klopp or {[Pep] Guardiola'. We just need to alter things a little bit and move on.
“So the next few games now are about whether Pellegrini can get himself some good stock and answers for the difficult question about why they did not win the title this season.”
However, even finishing as runners-up in the league contrasts greatly with when Quinn played for City in the nineties.
“When we left the Etihad, looking at the academy, it is like a university campus there now and you see everything on a vast site that contrasts totally with the football club that I joined,” said Quinn, who spent six years leading the line at Maine Road after joining them from Arsenal in 1990.
“We used get changed in the old dressing rooms at Maine Road, then got in our cars and drove to Platt Lane, which did not even have a dressing room,” said the Irishman. “It was just the way football was at that time. It was a wonderful time for me as I was just starting out as a footballer at City and I loved my time there.
“But the club was under the shadow of Manchester United and it found it difficult as it took a long time to get away from that. And it did take some serious investment and the move to the Etihad to change all that.
“But that will never make me forget about all my good times at the club. It was a thrill to go there for the first time. City paid me far more than I was on at Arsenal and I blossomed here. I came very near the end of the transfer deadline at the end of March and we were in the bottom three, but we stayed up under Howard Kendall.
“And I took off in my following year, my first full season at City. I think I got 22 goals, the first player since Francis Lee to do that for City. So it was good, I was accepted here, and I also had a few quid in my pocket.
“Times were booming, the Hacienda had just opened up, although I never actually went there myself! The whole music scene came to life at Manchester and it was an incredible time. Oasis played at Maine Road and Liam Gallagher came out wearing a City shirt with Niall Quinn on his back!
“So I had my moments and it was fun, Manchester was happening, I then met someone and got married and things slow down a bit after that!”
However, despite his hugely enjoyable time at the club, nothing will ever compare with the moment three years ago when City won their first Premier League title with virtually the last kick of that season.
And Quinn was there to savour it all while working on the game at the City of Manchester Stadium as an analyst for Sky Sports.
“You stop to think about the people who had blind faith, like the kit man, the ordinary fans and there were a group of people who I knew what it meant to see their team win the league and end this dominance that was coming from Old Trafford,” he said.
“I was on a journey here for six years and was relegated shortly before I left. We had a decent side, but there were also a lot of issues. But that did not stop me from understanding what it meant to the people, the blue half of Manchester, who had followed City through thick and thin.
“And more often it was thin, with City’s reputation for throwing things away. So my first thought after that game was for all those City fans who never even dared dream it could happen.”
Listen to Ed Chamberlin and Niall Quinn's Super Sunday audio blog below.
