MANCHESTER -- Manuel Pellegrini has targeted a defensive improvement at Aston Villa on Saturday after admitting that Manchester City are conceding too many goals.
The Premier League champions have let in five goals in their last three games and have not kept a clean sheet against top-flight opposition since the opening weekend of the season when they beat Newcastle 2-0.
And manager Pellegrini, who welcomes fit-again midfielder Fernando back into his squad for the trip to Villa Park, is urging them to tighten up at the back after Arsenal and Hull both scored twice against City and Chelsea struck once.
He said in a news conference: "We need to concentrate on defending because we need a clean sheet. In the last three games in the Premier League, we concede five goals and that is too much."
City are five points behind league leaders Chelsea but Pellegrini will be satisfied with their start to the season if they defeat Villa on Saturday.
"In the Premier League, if we win, yes, I will be happy," he added. "The only game we lost was here against Stoke. It was not in our minds that we can lose that game but that can happen in football. I think that in all other games we play very well. About the Champions League, I am not happy of course but it not the amount of points we can have at this moment."
City lost 3-2 at Villa Park last season but have improved their away form since then and have only been beaten on one of their last 15 Premier League trips.
Pellegrini added: "I am very happy [because] it was one of the things we were criticised for last year. It is very important to try to play the same way we do at home. That is what we try to do and I hope tomorrow we continue in the same way."
Midfielder Fernando has sat out City's last six games with a groin injury but is back in contention after returning to training as only Samir Nasri, who underwent groin surgery, is unavailable.
"We have just one player injured, Samir Nasri," Pellegrini said. "All the others are fit."