Manuel Pellegrini had “no excuses” for Manchester City’s humbling 3-1 defeat by Leicester at the Etihad Stadium as the Chilean admitted his side were well and truly beaten by the Premier League surprise leaders.
High-riding Leicester earned a vital three points with 13 games remaining thanks to a double from Robert Huth, scoring either side of Riyad Mahrez’s strike.
It marked City’s sixth league defeat of the season, and their first in eight Premier League games, and Pellegrini admitted he was surprised at the manner of the loss.
“I don’t think it’s fair to make excuses,” said the Chilean. “A lot of things went wrong. We played against a very good team. It’s fair to give the merit they have, they’re playing well. I don’t complain about one action of the game. I just complain about the way we played today. We had a chance to recover points at home, we are six points behind. Now we have 39 points more to play for. We must focus game by game and try to beat Spurs here. We will also see what happens between Arsenal and Leicester. So many things can happen. Of course though, this was a defeat we didn’t expect.”
City are now six points adrift of leaders Leicester, and face Tottenham (home), Chelsea (away) and Liverpool (away) in their next three Premier League games.
And Pellegrini admitted his side have not been playing at their best recently, insisting the club’s injury problems have had an impact.
Jesus Navas, Kevin De Bruyne and Samir Nasri are long-term absentees, while Vincent Kompany, Eliaquim Mangala and Wilfried Bony are also out.
Pellegrini said: “We’re not in our best moment – we have just 14 players fit. We need to recover as soon as we can from this defeat. If Leicester continue playing the way they are [favourites]. There are 13 games more so it’s difficult to predict.”
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