Mancini accepts City are favourites

Roberto Mancini knows that his Manchester City team are favourites to lift the Barclays Premier League title after their 2-0 victory at Newcastle.

City will head into their final game of the campaign at home to relegation-haunted QPR sitting at the top of the table and knowing victory will deliver the prize they have craved for the last 44 years.

Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson said his club's arch-rivals might now have both hands on the trophy, and while Mancini is refusing to look any further ahead than next weekend's game, when asked if City are now favourites, the Italian said: "Maybe, maybe yes because it depends on us."

Though he cautioned: "If we beat QPR, we will be the champions. But at this moment, we can't think about this. We need to prepare very well for the next game, only this.

"I am excited because we are on the top, but it's not enough. One week more and if we play like we did today, we have a lot of chance to win."

Victory over Newcastle was achieved courtesy of a double from Yaya Toure, and Mancini said of the Ivory Coast international: "Yaya is an important player for us because he has experience. He won with Barca, he won trophies and he brought to us this experience for this reason.

"Yaya is a fantastic player, but I don't think you can win here because Yaya played well. We won here against Newcastle because all the team played really well and we deserved to win."

The Magpies tasted defeat for just the second time in nine games - and they have won the other seven - and they will run out at Everton next weekend knowing a third-place finish is still a possibility.

Manager Alan Pardew said: "If I was Arsenal, they only need a point to finish in a Champions League position, but actually they need to win because fourth place is not guaranteed, of course, with Chelsea. They have got to win, really, in case Spurs finish above them, so that could be significant.

"For our part, there's a simple equation: we have to win at Everton, which might not be enough, but that's what we need to do."