Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini has said his side will not win a historic quadruple if they play as badly as they did in the first half of their FA Cup fourth round win against Watford. Pellegrini cut an agitated figure on the sidelines as he watched his side fall behind to the visitors at half time thanks to goals from Fernando Forestieri and Troy Deeney. But City rallied in the second half to come from behind and win thanks to a Sergio Aguero hat-trick and a mistake from Jonathan Bond, who let Aleksander Kolarov's effort trickle under him. City are still on course to scoop an incredible Premier League, League Cup, FA Cup and Champions League quadruple as a result, but Pellegrini warned after the match:
I don't know what will happen in the future but I am absolutely sure that if we played as we did in the first half, it's impossible , but if we play as we did in second half maybe we can continue in all the competitions.
Watford were good value for their half-time lead and had City rattled for much of the game, the home side unable to impose themselves on the Hornets for long periods. The Championship club looked as though they might secure one of the big upsets of the FA Cup and maintained their lead for an hour until Aguero struck a hat-trick. The Argentinian scored his side's first and second goals to level the contest and Kolarov's long-ranged speculative effort somehow trickled in to give City the lead for the first time. And Aguero headed a third - his side's fourth - to put the game out of Watford's reach to qualify for the fifth round. Pellegrini hailed the South American striker's importance to his side but revealed after the game he would have preferred to have rested him as he has just returned from injury. The Chilean coach said:
Sergio is a top player who is very important to us. The first idea was for him not to play the 90 minutes. He has played 30, 45 and 60 minutes since returning and the idea was to play him for 60 or 70 minutes. But he had to play the whole match and he made the difference.
Joseph is an accredited football journalist and has interviewed nearly all of the current 20 Barclay's Premier League managers. He is also a correspondent for Bleacher Report and has written for Caught Offside and Give Me Football.
