Manuel Pellegrini accepted the blame on Sunday night for the emphatic Manchester derby defeat that has plunged his job into even greater jeopardy . Manchester United heaped more pressure on the beleaguered City boss with a 4-2 win at Old Trafford , lifting them four points clear of their rivals in the race for a Champions League place . City capitulated after taking an early lead through Sergio Aguero , and Pellegrini said : ‘ I always think it is my responsibility , always . I think it was a clear result for Manchester United . Manuel Pellegrini watches from the touchline as Manchester City lose 4-2 to United at Old Trafford . Manchester City players show their dejection at the derby defeat on Sunday afternoon . ‘ But I am not talking about my position – it is not important. ’ The Premier League champions have lost six of their last eight games in all competitions , and a team that were joint top on New Year ’ s Day are now fighting to finish in the top-four . City sources maintain that Pellegrini is unlikely to be axed before the end of the season . But Patrick Vieira has impressed in his work with the club ’ s elite development squad and is believed to be willing to step in as interim manager until the end of the season if Pellegrini goes . Vieira is in charge of City ’ s Under-21 development squad and is being groomed to become the manager at the Etihad in the future . Pellegrini admitted that the spirit within his squad is a concern as he tries to arrest the slump . City are five points ahead of fifth-placed Southampton ahead of next Sunday ’ s game at home to West Ham . Patrick Vieira looks on during a Manchester City UEFA Youth League match against Schalke in February . Manchester United players celebrate as Chris Smalling ( centre ) scores their fourth goal of the afternoon . ‘ Maybe it is something we can be concerned ( about ) , ’ he added . ‘ The spirit of the team does not seem the real spirit but we must try to continue playing the way we did for the first 20 minutes . ‘ It is the same team . We must improve and I hope when we win again the team will recover their trust . ‘ We are concerned to try and win the next game . We have to play six games more . We were the whole year in the first or second position . ‘ United and Arsenal have to play against Chelsea . We have 18 points more to play so we must not try make it a dramatic moment . We now have two games at home , we must try to recover from this defeat. ’ United ’ s win in front of their jubilant supporters ended a run of four successive Manchester derby defeats . Ashley Young , Marouane Fellaini , Juan Mata and Chris Smalling gave Louis van Gaal ’ s team an unassailable lead before Aguero got his second goal late on . Sergio Aguero walks off the pitch after the final whistle is blown at Old Trafford . Van Gaal claimed that United ’ s 4-3 advantage on aggregate in this season ’ s two derbies with City means that they can consider themselves to be the top team in Manchester . He said : ‘ It ’ s great to be a supporter of Man United right now . ‘ You are playing for the fans and at the start of the season it was not fantastic to be a United fan . We had 11 matches and 13 points and still they supported us . This week they can go on the streets , head up and say “ we are the better team because goal average is in our favour ” . ‘ We are now four points ahead of City in third place which is very important because it gets you automatic qualification into the Champions League . We started badly , there was a lot of stress building up and because of that we went 1-0 behind . But we have good team spirit and came back . The second half was fantastic . Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal ( right ) celebrates victory with Ander Herrera at full-time . ‘ But we have still six matches to go and that can be changed again so we can enjoy ourselves today and tomorrow maybe . Tuesday is a day off but then we have to prepare for a match against Chelsea away . ‘ The goal we set was to get into the top four and I ’ ll be very pleased if we reach that goal . It is not done yet but we are on our way . ’
liver ##pool lost 4 - 2 to liver United at Old Trafford on Sunday . City manager Manuel costa took the blame for the defeat . Club sources say that Pellegrini is unlikely to be axed before end of season . villa Vieira is unlikely to be willing to step in as interim manager .