Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini believes that his players have every right to be proud of their season even if they end it without silverware.
The Citizens trail Manchester United by three points heading into tomorrow night's Manchester derby at the Etihad Stadium.
Mancini stressed the importance of improving on last year's third-placed finish but said that his side only have a "small chance" of winning the Premier League title.
"For us, I repeat, we should be proud for our season," The Mirror quotes the Italian as saying. "It is important we are here and at the end of the season we are playing for the title.
"In the last two years we have improved a lot as a club, as a team, and this is important. Now we have this small chance but I think it is important that after Arsenal we just continue to play football.
"We have only one chance because [Man Utd] lost a point against Everton, but I think it will be difficult. They have one difficult game against us, then they have two easy games. They will probably get six points."
City have not won the title since 1968.
