The secret behind Man City's disciplinary record

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The secret behind Man City's disciplinary record - Manuel Pellegrini has revealed that he and his fellow Manchester City coaches deliberately referee training grounds incorrectly to force his Premier League title-chasing side to play to the whistle.

The novel approach is paying divends: City are one of five teams yet to pick up a red card in the league and currently sit fifth in the Fair Play table, behind Manchester United, Everton, Leicester City and leaders Arsenal.

"The players know that we referee badly," Pellegrini told reporters. "We try to make plenty of mistakes so that they forget about the refs in proper games.

"There are fouls that we don't punish because we want them to play to the whistle. We want them to keep running.

"We're trying to prepare them psychologically because refereeing errors are important during games. It should never be the case that they lose their heads and don't continue playing.