concentrate on qualifying from another tough UEFA
Champions League group rather than complaining
about the rules.
The Premier League champions were again seeded
lower than Chelsea and Arsenal when the draw was
made in Monaco on Thursday and must come
through a group featuring Bayern Munich, CSKA
Moscow and Roma.
It is the third time in four years City have been
drawn with Bayern, and last season was the first
time they managed to reach the knockout phase.
He said: "Maybe other draws aren't as difficult as
ours but that doesn't matter.
"It's the rules of the draw, maybe there are different
systems but now there is one system and there's
nothing we can do to change that.
"Last year we lost the first position on goal
difference, we hope with the trust that we've
qualified before, we will progress.
"I think it's a similar group to last year, a difficult
group. With Roma also in a group, it's difficult but
we must play and try to qualify."
The immediate priority for Pellegrini is Saturday's
home game against Stoke as City aim to maintain a
100% start to the defence of their title.
Monday's convincing defeat of Liverpool means
expectations at the Etihad are high, and the
manager said: "We are a strong team, the same as
five or six other clubs in England. We don't have a
problem with that expectation. We need to win and
we will try to win always.
"Of course I am absolutely sure we are going to have
a lot of problems against a difficult team like Stoke.
Last year, in our best moment, we won just 1-0 at
home.
"In the first two games they have just one draw but
I am sure they are going to come here to try and do
a tough game, and we need to play very well if we
are to win."
Pellegrini confirmed there have been no offers for
Scott Sinclair, Micah Richards and John Guidetti,
none of whom are in City's squad for the season.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile.