Manchester City striker Carlos Tevez thanked manager Roberto Mancini for keeping faith with him and warned Manchester United the title race is far from over after he hit a hat-trick in Saturday's 6-1 annihilation of Norwich.
Tevez went AWOL for three months after a spat with Mancini but the pair have now made up and Tevez is back in the fold for the Lancashire club as they seek to overhaul their bitter local rivals and clinch their first title since 1968.
Mancini, perhaps taking a leaf out of United manager Sir Alex Ferguson's textbook on mind games, claimed again on Saturday that the title race is "finished", but Tevez told City TV: "Of course we can still win the title. Obviously we have to put pressure on United. We just need to continue to play the way we are. Mathematically it's not impossible."
Tevez's dispute with Mancini stretches back to September when the Italian claimed his former captain refused to come off the bench in the club's Champions League game at Bayern Munich.
After five months of disciplinary hearings, public verbal sparring with Mancini and huge fines, Tevez returned in February after issuing an apology.
The 28-year-old made four substitute appearances and has looked very sharp since being restored to the starting XI on Wednesday, when he helped the Blues to a 4-0 win over West Brom.
"I am very happy that I played very well today but the most important thing is that I want to say thank you to my colleagues for all the support they have given me since I arrived," he said.
"It wasn't easy coming back to training and to play but they have given me a lot of support and the technical staff have been very good to me too. I really appreciate everyone's help."
Source: PA
