Villa manager Martin O’Neill has warned crisis-hit Manchester City remain capable of wrecking the club’s top-four dreams by insisting – ‘They can still win the title.’

City, the world’s richest club, have been embroiled in controversy this week following the sacking of boss Mark Hughes and the immediate appointment of Roberto Mancini as his replacement – despite the club having lost less games than any other Premier League side as well as reaching the Carling Cup semi-finals.

Senior players Shay Given and Craig Bellamy are reported to be now considering their futures at the club.

But O’Neill insists City, who are just six points behind fourth-placed Villa with a game in hand, have so much quality they cannot even be ruled out of the title race – let alone the race for fourth.

The manager said: “Can Manchester City win the title? They have the wherewithal to do it. I think Mark Hughes will be disappointed not to have been allowed to see the job through.

“City had lost less games in the Premier League than anyone else, but I can accept the fact that they may well have drawn some games they should have won.”

O’Neill believes Hughes’ dramatic departure is further evidence of the fickle nature of football.

The Villa boss said: “This idea you step in and be given some money to spend and you turn things immediately, it wouldn’t happen in any other business and wouldn’t be accepted in any other business.

“I’ve heard there was talk the manager had been speaking to City some weeks before. Mark Hughes had taken the team into the Carling Cup semi-final, the first visit they had made there for 20 odd years, and so it can be pretty fickle.

“It is crazy. In any other industry you would be given the time to do the job, but football is not like any other industry and more so than ever before.”