Pellegrini admits five-goal haul was harsh on Blackburn

The Chilean lavished praise on the Championship outfit for their endeavours, while he dismissed notions of a problematic selection headache following the return of Sergio Aguero

Manuel Pellegrini believes Manchester City's 5-0 win over Blackburn flattered his side, and was keen to laud the performance of their defeated FA Cup third-round replay opponents.

City continued their astonishing goalscoring form at the Etihad Stadium by plundering four second-half goals after Alvaro Negredo had opened the scoring on the stroke of half-time which, in Pellegrini's eyes, gave a slightly deceiving look to the scoreline.

"[I'm] very happy but I think the difference between the two teams was not five goals today," the Chilean told reporters when quizzed on his thoughts on his side's latest five-star showing.

"I think we played with a very strong team, Blackburn played in the first half very well.

"We didn't find space, it was very important for us to score that goal from Alvaro at the last of the first 45 minutes and in the second half we have space and have a lot of opportunities to score.

"But, I repeat, congratulations to Blackburn because it was a very difficult game."

The goalscoring feast saw City reach 99 goals for the campaign, with Edin Dzeko also netting a double while Sergio Aguero scored on his long-awaited return from a calf injury.

With Dzeko scoring his 15th goal of the season, Pellegrini was asked whether he faced a selection headache for the remainder of the season, with Steven Jovetic also yet to make a comeback from injury, but the Chilean chose to rejoice in his strikeforce's devastating form.

"For me, that's not a problem," he said. "For me it's a problem when you don't have the players to choose.

"I think that Alvaro and Edin Dzeko are in a very good moment. It's very important for the team now that Sergio [Aguero] comes back today and scores in this game.

"We have so many games in the future that we don't have any problems in that sense. We are also waiting on [Stevan] Jovetic, who is massively important to this team."