Man City 3 Swansea 0: Manuel Pellegrini ‘very pleased’ with victory

Manuel Pellegrini praised Manchester City’s overall display after his side beat Swansea to move up to third place in the Premier League table.

Alvaro Negredo scored a free-kick to give City the lead in the eighth minute and Samir Nasri netted twice in the second half to help maintain his side’s 100 per cent home record in the league.

“I’m very pleased because we won against a very difficult team, especially when they had possession,” said Pellegrini, who restored goalkeeper Costel Pantilimon to the starting line-up ahead of Joe Hart.

“We didn’t play very well in the first half but in the second we scored two goals and had more chances.

“Pantilimon did very well, he didn’t have too much work but when he needed to be there he really did well.”

Nasri, who netted his third and fourth league goals of the season, called on City to improve their away form as they look to close the six-point gap to leaders Arsenal.

“Everything is fine at the moment, we had a tough first half but we came back with the best intentions, scored three goals and kept a clean sheet so it’s a good afternoon for us,” said Nasri.

“We have to improve our form away from home and we have two games to do this this week. Six points is not a lot, in terms of the gap before we face Arsenal.”

Meanwhile, Swansea boss Michael Laudrup was pleased with his side’s performance and felt they deserved something from the game.

“Our tactics before the game were to try and keep the ball and we played a good first half but you could see some of their players need a split-second to turn game around,” said Laudrup.

“It’s strange to lose 3-0 when we have done so many good things. That’s the difference between having good players, like we have, and maybe the world-class players that play for them.”