By NEIL CUSTIS
ROBERTO MANCINI has torn into his £110million strike-force after Manchester City surrendered top spot in the Premier League.
He used each of Sergio Aguero, Edin Dzeko, Carlos Tevez and Mario Balotelli at different stages of Sunday’s 0-0 draw at Chelsea.
But despite his team largely dominating the game, not one of them could find the net and it is clear Mancini will be looking for an immediate response at Wigan tomorrow.
City boss Mancini said: “I don’t know how many times we crossed and didn’t have any players in the box. This cannot happen.
“We have four good strikers, but I want them to work harder and to score when they have a chance — they are strikers and this is what they are there for.
“They have to defend as well, of course, but they need to put chances away. I am happy with the performance, but not with what happened near their box. We are in second position and we don’t like that.”
The stalemate was City’s second straight blank away from home after missing out at West Ham.
Despite being unbeaten they now trail neighbours Manchester United, who have lost three games, by two points.
It is the five draws from 13 games which have proved costly for City and in at least four of them they had the chances to put their opponents away.
Midfielder James Milner said: “When we are on top in games we are not quite putting teams to bed like we should be.”
But he was quick to point out it is a sign of where City are nowadays that they can leave Stamford Bridge disappointed with a point. He added: “Any time you are coming away from a ground against the European champions disappointed you didn’t get the win, it is a positive thing.
“We were pretty solid and moved the ball around pretty well. It just didn’t happen for us at the business end.”
Another plus for City again was their defence which has now conceded just one goal in their last five league games.
They have had the best defensive record in the Premier League in the last two seasons and have it again right now.
Central to is captain Vincent Kompany who has shaken off a poor start to look like a real leader again.
Despite being on crutches two days beforehand he was there to help restrict Chelsea to just one decent effort on goal all game.
Kompany said: “I wanted to play for the team.”
