London, Feb 9: Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has said he is "more confident than ever" to finish in the top four of the Premier League table despite the dismal performance so far this season.

Mancini also admitted that he lost his temper with his team for the first time since he arrived, during an emotional, but brief half-time team talk at Hull on Saturday.

Yet for all his disappointment at the defeat to their relegation threatened opponents, he was confident that not only will City qualify for the Champions League this season, they can also snatch third place from Arsenal.

"I am asked if I am still confident we can get fourth, well, I am more confident now than ever. I said when I came in that is our aim, and it is still our aim. I believe we will do it because in my first three or four games we played very well, but we had very few players available," The Mirror quoted Mancini, as saying.

"Now, we are getting players back and I am confident that when I have all the squad available we can win at home and win away. You must remember that we have two games in hand. This is an important fact and if we win these two games, we will be in fourth position and we will be one point behind Arsenal," he added.

He added that had City won against Hull City, his would have been on target.

Mancini knows that February could be crucial in his quest to secure the Manchester City job on a long-term basis, and he insisted his players are up to the test.

"We must continue as we played in the second half at Hull. For me, February is very important. It is a crucial moment because we play Bolton, Stoke, Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham," Mancini said.

"I think that if we have all our players back then we can see an improvement. It is difficult for me when I have three, four, five players injured. It is a big problem. We want to change the mentality because to reach our target we must start winning away," he added.