In his press conference, Manuel Pellegrini called for togetherness ahead of Manchester City’s clash with West Ham United on Sunday afternoon. The Chilean called upon his players, staff and the fans to rally and is positive that his side will return to normal levels of performance ahead of Sunday’s game.

He said: "It’s more important than ever to have the fans, the players and the staff together as one. We are one club, my pressure is always the same, to win every game for this team to play in the way I like the team to play. Last year there was more pressure when we were fighting for the title. The pressure is for us to recover our normal performance and that’s not the same as fighting for the title. We are thinking about the next game against West Ham on Sunday and that’s the only thing on our minds."

City will be without five key players ahead of Sam Allardyce’s side's trip to the Etihad, Pellegrini ruled out Wilfried Bony, Gael Clichy, Stevan Jovetic, Vincent Kompany and James Milner.

Pellegrini added: "Boyata is fit - he started working yesterday. Jovetic, Bony, Clichy, Milner and Kompany are not fit for Sunday. Clichy has a groin problem, while Jovetic and Bony are recovering. Vincent is injured - it’s very difficult to know [how long he'll be out]. He has a muscle injury - we don’t know how many weeks. You don’t know if he will be fit before the end of the season."

There has been a heap of pressure on the shoulders of the 61-year-old with the current Premier League champions' poor run of results with rumours circulating that Jürgen Klopp may replace him in the summer.

When asked to analyse the year he stated: "The players always have my support - I have trust for the group. I hope we will score goals and stop conceding easy goals. With trust, we can recover. My responsibility is for the whole team. I choose the players and I always trust them. Results are my responsibility."

“Players have responsibility too but I choose the players. It’s important to be in the Champions League. Every time you finish a season you must analyse whether you’re winning or losing. If we lost the last six games we won’t have the same conclusions as if we win the next six. Maybe you can finish second or eighth - it’s impossible to analyse before the end.”

Manchester City will host West Ham at the Etihad Stadium tomorrow, with kick-off at 1:30pm.