Mancini hopes forwards take hint

Mancini claimed on New Year's Eve he had been "very close" to signing van Persie last summer and that the prolific Dutchman was now the main difference between City and rivals Manchester United.

Those remarks came against a backdrop of recurring criticism from Mancini for his own forwards.

Sergio Aguero, Carlos Tevez and Edin Dzeko had all been quiet in front of goal but their latest performances have hinted at a return to form.

Tevez said this week Mancini's comments had provided extra motivation and the Italian now wants them to build momentum.

Mancini said: "I continue to talk about van Persie and other strikers.

"If we score two or three goals with our strikers, and if we talk about other attackers, I continue to talk.

"I hope we start to score with our strikers, this is very important for us.

"If Dzeko, Carlos, Sergio and Mario (Balotelli) continue to score, I think we can change this."

Prior to the Decembe r 29 trip to Norwich in the Premier League, City's high-profile frontmen - including Balotelli - had scored just one goal between them in five games.

Balotelli fell ill during that sequence but the barren run ended at Carrow Road as Dzeko struck twice and Aguero also scored.

That pair were also on target against Stoke on New Year's Day and Tevez got on the scoresheet in last weekend's FA Cup defeat of Watford.

Despite that, City have still scored 16 goals less than they had at the corresponding stage of last season's title-winning campaign.

Mancini said: "For every striker maybe there are some moments where maybe you don't score and you don't know why - this is football.

"Last year we scored a lot of goals, maybe too many goals. This year we are missing maybe 15 goals from last year but it is important that Sergio, Carlos and Edin scored goals in the last two games."

City have not won at Arsenal in the league for 37 years and suffere d what seemed a terminal blow to their title bid when they lost there in April.

The damaging 1-0 defeat, in which Balotelli was sent off, left them eight points behind United with just six games to play but City managed to turn that around. They head into this weekend's fixtures trailing United by seven points.

Mancini said: "To play against Arsenal in London is very difficult because they play very, very well.

"But we changed many things last year and it is a time now to change this situation. There have been a lot of years we didn't win there."

City supporters have only taken up about two thirds of their allocation for the match. Seats priced at 62 each did not sell well and City returned 912 tickets to Arsenal.

Mancini said: "We are disappointed for this because we need our fans away.

"We have fantastic fans and we have fantastic support from them. We are sorry for this."