Manuel Pellegrini refuses to accept Manchester City’s Premier League title race is over despite suffering a major dent to their hopes with a shock 1-0 defeat at Burnley on Saturday.
The Blues appeared to be a shadow of the side which lifted the top flight crown last season, as the relegation-battling Clarets secured a vital three points thanks to George Boyd’s second-half super strike.
City remain five points behind table toppers Chelsea, though they now have two games in hand and can increase their lead to eight points with victory over Southampton on Sunday.
Pellegrini’s side, whose Champions League hopes also hang by a thread ahead of this week’s last-16 clash with Barcelona, have fallen away alarmingly since pulling level with the London outfit on New Year's Day and have won just three of their last nine league games.
However, the Chilean coach insists his team will ‘continue fighting’.
"Every point we drop will be more difficult,” said Pellegrini.
"When you have mathematical chances you must try to continue fighting, but the most important thing is to trust in what we are doing, try to win the next game and we will see at the end of the season where you will finish."
With the title looking a long shot, City could now face a battle to hold on to second place - or even their spot in the top four - with Arsenal just one point behind.
Pellegrini brushed aside those concerns and instead turned focus to Wednesday's Champions League battle at Barcelona.
The Blues boss said: "We are worried just about our team. We continue in second place, so we are not doing so bad. We have 27 points more we must fight for to try to keep this position.
"From tomorrow we must trust in what we are doing and try to win on Wednesday in Barcelona."
City dominated possession and created 21 chances, but only managed to land five on target and generally lacked energy and a cutting edge.
Leading stars Yaya Toure – who reacted badly to being substituted – Sergio Aguero, David Silva and captain Vincent Kompany were all way below par, but Pellegrini - who is coming under increasing pressure - refused to criticise his side.
He said: "It was a normal performance. I don't think we played very bad. We had three or four chances. Burnley had just one shot on target and scored one goal, but we need to create more chances.
"I don't think we created the amount of chances we need to score goals."
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