Mancini doesn't want sympathy

City may be facing elimination from the UEFA Champions League, but they are top of the Premier League and are set to face Liverpool in the Carling Cup semi-finals. And Mancini thinks his expensively assembled squad are beginning to be disliked because they are winning matches, which he claims follows the pattern of Manchester United. The City boss thinks a busy fixture-list over the coming months will earn his side little compassion from critics as a consequence of their achievements, but he does not care. "Every team that wins things doesn't get sympathy," said Mancini. "Do United get sympathy from other teams? No, because United win always. "When Arsenal won leagues and cups, was there sympathy? No. Because every team knows that when they win they do not get sympathy. "I hope we don't get sympathy for the next games either." But Mancini does not want to get carried away and only in January will he begin to consider whether City will win trophies. He said: "The season is hard now. We have two months, December and January, that I think will be crucial months because we play tough games and we play every three days. "I think that, after January, we can start talking about whether we can win something or not."