Manuel Pellegrini purrs over slick Manchester City

The Chilean is delighted his work is bearing fruit as his team brought up their century of goals for the season in a 4-2 win against Cardiff City.

Edin Dzeko scored Manchester City's 100th goal of the 2013/14 season with the first goal in a 4-2 win over Cardiff City. Alex Livesey / Getty Images

MANCHESTER CITY 4

CARDIFF CITY 2

MANCHESTER // Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini is delighted his work is bearing fruit as his team brought up their century of goals for the season.

City took their tally for the season from 99 to a remarkable 103 as they beat Cardiff City 4-2 at the Etihad Stadium to stay within a point of Premier League leaders Arsenal.

Pellegrini has made clear his love of attacking football since taking charge last summer and his free-scoring side are delivering impressively.

The Chilean said: “I think it is very important for the team.

“It is not easy to score 100 and 103 goals just a little bit past the middle of the season. It reflects how we think about this team must play and I think the players feel comfortable in what we are doing.

“We are always a creative team and we have chances every match to score a lot of goals.

“The first 45 minutes was one of the best 45 minutes we played this season. It is important to continue in the same way.”

City took the lead in the 14th minute when referee Neil Swarbrick – in a demonstration of the effectiveness of the Goal Decision System – indicated that Edin Dzeko’s shot had crossed the line before Kevin McNaughton cleared.

Craig Noone scored a brilliant equaliser after a weaving run but Jesus Navas quickly responded.

Cardiff battled early in the second half but Yaya Toure and substitute Sergio Aguero made victory safe in the last 15 minutes, before Fraizer Campbell grabbed an injury-time consolation.

Pellegrini said: “I think we are in a very good moment and the confidence of the whole team, not only 11 players, is very high at the moment.

“Of course if the season continues in this way in the last month there will be pressure for all the teams.

“I hope we will continue in this way. It will be a very close Premier League until the end.”

Cardiff’s defeat left them bottom of the table but the competition is tight and manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer took plenty from their performance.

Solskjaer said: “We felt that with 15 minutes to go we had the crowd turning – not against them but they weren’t sure of the three points.

“We made them make a few mistakes. It was a great response after the poor start we had.

“That start was disappointing, again. That mindset has got to change. We have got to come here and expect to play better than we did.”

Cardiff’s players complained after the award of the first goal, not about whether the ball had crossed the line but apparently because they felt David Silva had handled in the build-up.

Solskjaer said: “It is hard to say if it was a handball. If the referee makes a decision we can’t feel sorry for ourselves. He makes the decision.”

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