Man United 0 Man City 3: Pellegrini thrilled with ‘balanced’ performance

Manuel Pellegrini could not hide his delight after watching Manchester City increase the pressure on the Premier League leaders with a comfortable derby win over Manchester United.

Edin Dzeko scored early in each half, with Yaya Toure adding a third in stoppage time at Old Trafford as City moved into second place and within three points of Chelsea with two games in hand.

I am very happy about our defending. We are a very balanced team at the moment

Manuel Pellegrini

And Pellegrini was thrilled with the “complete” performance from his side against the defending champions.

“We really made a really good performance in all senses,” Pellegrini told Sky Sports.

“We scored three goals and had three or four more good chance to score. I don’t remember many chances Manchester United had to score. We started for the three points from the first minute.”

He continued: “For me, it’s very important to keep our clean sheet. We know we can score lots of goals. We were very compact worked completely in attacking and defending.

“I repeat, I am very happy about our defending. We are a very balanced team at the moment.”

Pellegrini, whose City side travel to Arsenal on Saturday afternoon, called on his side to continue to replicate their current form.

“It was very important [to win] psychologically for us because it was one of the matches we were behind,” he said. “It was very important to continue adding points.

“To become champions we need to win more points than the other teams. We have played nine games more, you cannot know how many points you will need. But we need to continue playing like we did today.”