Man City boss Roberto Mancini is pleased with Manchester City's season to date, although he believes they could do more in the second half of the campaign.

The Premier League leaders ended a mini blip on Tuesday with a 3-0 success over Liverpool, helping them move three points clear of Manchester United.

City followed up their Boxing Day draw at West Brom by suffering a last-gasp defeat by Sunderland, a game in which they dominated without finding the back of the net.

Mancini is keen to learn from harsh lessons this season by trying to avoid being defeated when things are not going their way in matches.

The Italian was disappointed they lost to Napoli in the UEFA Champions League in November, a result that ultimately cost them their place in the last 16 of the competition.

It was a similar tale at the Stadium of Light on Sunday when they inexplicably slipped to defeat against Sunderland when the game could have been out of sight.

Mancini knew City would never go the whole Premier League campaign undefeated and emulate Arsenal's Invincibles in the process, however, he wants them to maintain composure.

"There are other games, like at Chelsea, like at Sunderland, where if you are a top team you cannot win, but you must not lose." Roberto Mancini Quotes of the week

"We have done well this season, but we could do more," Mancini told the Daily Mail.

"Even the best teams, there are times during the year when you cannot win, and you don't know why. Maybe you are unlucky, you make chances and you cannot score.

"Then there are other games, like at Chelsea, like at Sunderland, where if you are a top team you cannot win, but you must not lose.

"We need to understand this. A clever team would understand it. 'OK', they would think, 'the win will not happen, but, just as important, we must concede nothing'. That is why I was so disappointed about Sunderland.

"We deserved to win 3-0, 4-0 maybe, but from there we had to be strong, very strong. The same in Naples. To draw there was important. Draw and we reach the Champions League knockout stage.

"One month ago, all the journalists were saying we could go the season unbeaten, like Arsenal. But I knew then that we would not. We are not Arsenal, we are not strong up here like that team.

"No matter how many strikers we have, I knew there would be a moment when we did not score and we arrived at Sunderland and it happened and we lost. And I could see this coming. That is why I knew we would not win all the games.

"We have fantastic players but we are not used to staying at the top a long time. There will be difficult moments, big matches, but it is not just about winning in the big matches. You must make sure you also win when you have won five, six games in a row. That is when you have to be at your strongest.

"We can lose at Sunderland and win against Liverpool and everyone says you have recovered well; but lose against Sunderland late in April and there is no time to recover. Your chance has gone. Too bad, you were not strong, so you lost the championship. We must be realistic. We must know this.

"It is different for Manchester United and for Chelsea, they have done it before. We know they will arrive strong in that last month but we may not be the same. Losing to Sunderland could have created a big problem for us.

"What if we had then lost to Liverpool? It could have happened. The first big chance of the game was for Stewart Downing. If he had scored, maybe Liverpool would have won 3-0. We had played just 48 hours earlier. We could have been too tired to come back."