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Mancini tells City to be ruthless like Utd

Roberto Mancini wants an even more clinical edge to his team © PA Photos

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Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini believes his free-scoring side need to be even more ruthless in front of goal - like Manchester United.

City have struck 15 times in winning their opening four Premier League games but neighbours and arch-rivals United, who also have a 100 per cent record and top the table, have still scored three more.

When City underlined their title credentials with a 5-1 win at Tottenham last month, United bettered them by thrashing Arsenal 8-2. Mancini's men impressed again by beating Wigan 3-0 last week, only for United to hammer Bolton 5-0.

"Man United are a top team, they have been used to winning for a long time. They have strong players," Mancini said. "When they played against Arsenal, when they scored two or three goals, they continued trying to score.

"We need to have this mentality. If we have a game like Tottenham where we can score, we need to continue to try to play.''

Mancini, however, does accept that his attack, even with expensive talents such as Edin Dzeko, Sergio Aguero, Carlos Tevez and Mario Balotelli to call upon, will not fire every time. One such occasion was Wednesday, when City were held to a 1-1 draw by Napoli on their Champions League debut at the Etihad Stadium.

"I think they have played very well, the strikers, but I said it is impossible to score every game. Napoli defended very well and it was difficult, but I am happy with our strikers.''

The coming months will be a big test of the durability of Mancini's star-studded squad with demanding games both at home and in Europe. City return to domestic action as they travel to Fulham on Sunday.

"It is important when you play like us - like all the teams playing Premier League and Champions League - you have time to recover between one game and another. It is important to recover very well. It is hard but this is football in 2011. I don't think it will be possible to win always but we want to try to win.

"We know against Fulham it will be a very tough game because at home they are strong.''

City are expected to challenge in all competitions this season and their Champions League opener has been viewed as a disappointing result by some observers. Mancini, however, was pleased with his side's debut outing in the competition even though they needed to come from behind to claim a point in the Group A clash.

He said: "This can happen in the Champions League, it is a top competition. We have players who have played this competition in the past but were playing for the first time with Manchester City. We wanted to win but sometimes you lose some balance.

"We lost this for 10 minutes in the second half. I think we made some mistakes but this was normal."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.