Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini admits he is preparing for a “vital” top-of-the-table crunch match with Premier League rivals Chelsea after losing ground in the title race.
Having completely wiped out the eight-point advantage Chelsea once held over them over Christmas, the top flight champions now find themselves trailing by a large margin again.
City were outgunned in a 2-0 home defeat to Arsenal on Sunday, a result which leaves them five points adrift of Jose Mourinho’s league leaders.
City controlled possession throughout at the Etihad Stadium, but lacked creativity despite the return of top scorer Sergio Aguero to their starting line-up, while Arsenal hit back on the counter-attack and netted through a Santi Cazorla penalty and Olivier Giroud’s header.
Pellegrini accepts his side's trip to Stamford Bridge in a fortnight is vital to their hopes of retaining the title, though he does believe his side can catch the Blues.
"The game we must play at Stamford Bridge is a very important game,” said the Chilean. “We must close the gap to two points.
"I hope we are going to recover and play the way we have been playing so far.
“But it’s just five points. A few months ago we were eight points behind them and we still have 45 points left to play for.”
Pellegrini felt City were not their usual attacking selves against Arsenal, who shut out the champions with an stubborn defensive display.
The Chilean coach, whose side are now heading to Abu Dhabi for a warm-weather training camp, said: "With the ball we didn't have clear ideas, I think we didn't play a good game.
"We ran a lot and had a lot of possession but we didn't have creative ideas to try and find the space against a team that defend very well.
"We conceded two goals from set-pieces. I doubt it was a penalty but after the penalty we had enough time and we didn't create many chances to score."
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