Manchester City's powerhouse central midfielder Fernadinho has branded his side's failure to beat bottom of the table Sunderland last night: "A complete disaster."
Things started well enough for City and Fernandinho personally at the Etihad last night as the Brazilian put the Blues 1-0 up inside two minutes after cooly slotting past Vito Mannone in a one on one situation, however unlike earlier in the season the Citizens didn't push on and proceed to give their visitors a hiding, but saw themsleves out played for most of the evening by a valiant Sunderland who were unfortunate not to win the match after a Connor Wickham brace.
The 2012 league champions can thank themsleves lucky to have got anything which only occured when Vito Mannone spilled Samir Nasri's shot over the line in the 88th minute. The defensive midfielder reflected his own feelings as well as his teamates in his post match interview saying: "The whole team is dissapointed about the result, especially in the way we played."
The man signed from Shaktar Donetsk back in the Summer has been one of City's better peformers this season and has formed a great partenship with Yaya Toure in the centre of midfield. However, his regular partner was missing last night and will be for one or two more games. The £30 million pound 29-year-old felt that their brilliant start courtesy of his goal was almost a curse for his side saying: "We scored after two minutes but then changed our style of play and paid for it."
Results like this are maybe not surprising though for City as they have played 13 more games than top of the table Liverpool due to the Champions League and going far in both cups which included a League Cup triumph over Sunderland ironically. Therefore fatigue maybe has to be taken into account even for an all star City squad, something which Fernandinho has acknowledged saying: "It can make some difference because we have been going for the Champions League, the Premier League and both cups and maybe our players are feeling a little tired."
The former Paereanense player has not given up on the title just yet and still feels City has a chance saying: "Our focus has to be on West Brom on Monday, that's a massive game for us." He also added about City's title rivals that : "We believe we can win the title. Chelsea and Liverpool have four games and they may drop points, we believe we can win this league."
The dominant midfielder hoping to play in a home World Cup in the summer remains defiant that his new club can win a second trophy this season however the defeat to Liverpool put it out of their hands and last night's draw has maybe killed the dream and it's now hard to see Manchester City finishing in the top two never mind top.