SUNDERLAND: Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini raised hopes that Vincent Kompany could be fit for his side’s Champions League showdown with Roma after the Premier League champions crushed Sunderland 4-1.

The injured City captain missed Wednesday’s comfortable win at the Stadium of Light, which kept the defending champions on the heels of leaders Chelsea, and will also sit out Saturday’s visit by Everton.

But Pellegrini revealed after the game that the 28-year-old Belgian international’s hamstring problem is not as serious as first feared.

The Chilean has refused to rule the defender out of next Wednesday’s high-profile European clash, and will give him every opportunity to feature in the final group-stage game at the Stadio Olimpico.

City are likely to need a victory over the Italians in order to progress to the knock-out stages for the second successive season, and Pellegrini said: “Vincent is improving, and maybe it’s not as serious as we thought in the beginning.

“We’ll see what happens this week to see if he’s got a chance for Roma, but at this stage, he’s got a chance.

“It’s not as serious (as first thought), because maybe it could have been one month out, but we’ll see in the next few days.”

Pellegrini paid tribute to Sergio Aguero after the in-form striker took his tally for the season to 19 goals by scoring in each half as City eased to a victory that kept them six points behind Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea.

City had lost 1-0 on their previous four visits to Wearside, but overcame an early Connor Wickham strike to seal a fourth straight win thanks to Aguero’s brace and further goals from Stevan Jovetic and Pablo Zabaleta.

Pellegrini added: “There’s a lot of good strikers around, but Sergio is one of the finest in the world. He’s not just scoring goals, but he’s playing very well.

“We took him off near the end, but that wasn’t down to any injury or a fitness problem. He’s a very important player for our team, both with the goals he scores and in his link-up play.”

Pellegrini refuted talk of the Premier League already being down to a two-horse title race between City and Chelsea.

“I don’t think this result shows we’re in better form than Chelsea,” he said.

“You can’t be the champions in November or December - there’s still five or six months to go.

“We’re doing well and we’ll continue playing the way we are. It’s not just down to two teams - there could be three or four in with a chance. Arsenal won again, so it’s too soon to say it’s down to two.

“It’s a nice feeling to win here at the Stadium of Light. We couldn’t do it for the last four seasons, and we kept our composure well after going a goal behind.”

Sunderland are just two points above the relegation zone after failing to reproduce the kind of defensive display that saw them hold Chelsea 0-0 in their previous home outing.

Head coach Gus Poyet said: “We’ve had hard back-to-back games. The demands both physically and mentally on Saturday against Chelsea were a lot and we weren’t able to be at the same level against City.

“When you’re not able to do that, you pay the price against this quality of team, so we have no complaints.

“Without Aguero, they’re a different team. I was hoping he’d be given a rest tonight (Wednesday), but unfortunately, he wasn’t.”