Retaining title 'difficult', says City boss Manuel Pellegrini

Champions City could have closed the deficit to two points with the west London side playing Tottenham Hotspur in the League Cup final.

Instead City remain five points adrift having played one game more after Jordan Henderson and the outstanding Philippe Coutinho scored "beautiful" goals either side of Edin Dzeko's equaliser.

City were out of sorts at Anfield and looked flustered in the face of Liverpool's high-octane pressing which disrupted their trademark slick passing.

After four successive games without victory in January and February, City appeared to have reignited their title challenge with victories against Stoke City and Newcastle United, with an aggregate score of 9-1.

After defeat, however, Pellegrini said there was still much for his expensively-assembled squad to improve on.

"Of course it is difficult to reach the top of table if you lose three points," Pellegrini told Sky Sports.

"It is three points less with one game less. It was a close game but Liverpool won because they scored two beautiful goals.

"But we must keep going and try to return to our normal performance and see where it takes us."

"There is much we must analyse to improve. I'm concerned that we are losing the ball too much, pressure is a factor.

"In the first half we lost too many balls, especially in the first 15 minutes. After that we equalised and then hit the post through Aguero.

"But in the second half we didn't arrive in their box so we tried to change our style of play."

Any hopes of an intriguing title race already look forlorn. City had to win at Anfield to keep the pressure on Chelsea.

They failed.

There was a spell last season when City looked unstoppable. Talk of an unprecedented quadruple surfaced in autumn as they blitzed teams for five, six and seven. They have twice overcome sizable deficits to triumph in the title race, but on both occasions they benefited from their rivals disintegrating.

This Chelsea side will not gift away a five-point lead. They might slip to the odd defeat, but City have showed few signs of being anywhere near ready to capitalise. They've failed to hit top form this season, with their key players - Sergio Aguero, Yaya Toure, David Silva and Vincent Kompany - all enduring difficult patches at some stage.

Sadly, we might have to accept that our end of season drama may instead occur in the battles for fourth and relegation.

Andy Hunter, The Guardian - The only fatigue in evidence at Anfield lay in Manchester City’s defence of the Premier League title. The recent failure to sign players with the pedigree of Silva, Agüero and Yaya Touré, anonymous here until a late surging run into the Liverpool area, combined with Vincent Kompany’s regression in the heart of defence has added to Pellegrini’s problems in attempting to keep pace with Chelsea.

Chris Bascombe, Telegraph - Pellegrini will leave The Etihad a league title winner regardless of how the rest of his managerial career in England evolves, but the jury is still deliberating whether City have won most of their games under him because they have the best players rather than an inspirational or strategic manager.

City have 11 league games remaining to catch Chelsea, starting with the visit of bottom-of-the-table Leicester City on Wednesday.