Angry Sven warns City's stars

The normally placid Swede was clearly rattled by his side's defeat at Birmingham that dented hopes of a top-six place and European qualification.

And he told his shell-shocked stars not to hide behind excuses when they come to examine their contribution to the 3-1 defeat against a side battling to stay in the division.

"Some of the players are not doing themselves any favours," he said. "If I was the owner I would start to think. I am the manager and I am getting worried when I see performances like this one absolutely."

Eriksson was clearly miffed at the award of a 75th-minute penalty for Birmingham that sealed the destination of the points but will not let his St Andrew's underachievers use that as a smokescreen to hide behind.

"Before we blame the ref we should blame ourselves," he went on.
"It is pointless talking about Europe if we play like that and take nothing from a match that was not that difficult.

"It wasn't even the physically hard game that we might have expected. It was nothing like as hard in that respect as the match at Bolton and we should win a game like that.

"But you don't win games if you concede goals in the way we conceded them. It was too easy for Birmingham.

"Our penalty was harsh but you can always make a case for the award because Queudrue had his hand on Benjani's neck and shoulder. From then on we should have been capable of getting a point against 10 men.

"Everything changed when the game went to 3-1. Of course it was not a penalty, everyone could see that.

"The referee got it wrong. Jihai was the one being fouled if anything but I felt it wasn't even worthy of a free-kick.

"It was a big decision from the referee because this not only affected us but teams like Bolton and others at the bottom.

"But in the end we must say to ourselves we cannot perform like that and defend like that if we are serious about getting into Europe.

We are not the Manchester City of earlier in the season. We gave the ball away far too often when not even pressed by the opposition.

"You will never win a game in the Premier League giving the ball away like we did and making so many unforced errors.

"I am frustrated because we are dreaming and talking about Europe and even against Bolton we fought hard for a point but on Saturday we were poor in what should have been an easier physical game."

"I am not blaming individuals, it is a collective thing. There were a lot of players involved in not stopping the first two Birmingham goals.

But we should have produced more in the middle. There seemed a lack of confidence."

Eriksson is hopeful that Michael Ball and Michael Johnson will shake off injuries before the Chelsea game and will welcome back flu-hit Martin Petrov.