Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini insists the defending champions aren’t concerned about Chelsea's growing lead at the Premier League summit.
But the Chilean admitted he was worried about the standard of his side's performance after James Milner’s 90th minute free kick rescued a 1-1 draw with Hull.
Jose Mourinho’s men are now seven points clear at the top as City fell further behind in the title race after dropping points against the relegation strugglers at the Etihad Stadium.
The holders – who have struggled without talisman midfielder Yaya Toure – are without a win in five games and look bereft of the inspiration they will need to mount a successful title defence.
Pellegrini said: "We are not concerned about the gap - we are concerned about how we can return to our normal performance, how we can score goals again and resolve the problems that other teams are putting in their box.
"Once again we couldn't create space against a team with 10 players behind the ball. We didn't have clear chances to score because we're not playing well when attacking.
"But you are not seeing a team with doubt. The team is running, the team has spirit, the team has possession of the ball. We work and try."
Milner's late heroics underlined his value to the club but the England international is out of contract in the summer and, despite talks that have been ongoing for some time, a new deal remains unsigned.
It has been claimed that Milner may have reservations about committing to a new contract because he may not be able to command a regular starting spot.
Again he was on the bench and Pellegrini said: "I needed to make changes because last two games we didn't score one goal here against Arsenal or Middlesbrough.
"I made changes to bring back Samir Nasri from injury but James Milner always has a space.
"He scored a beautiful goal from a free-kick. He has started a lot of games but it's a team problem, not just one individual player."
City have now failed to win in six Premier League games without Toure, who is set to play in the Sunday’s AFCON final with Ivory Coast.
Pellegrini said: "We have no doubt about how important a player Yaya is but we play other games without Yaya and we could win.
"It's not about Milner or Yaya - we must be a creative team again to do it better."
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