EPL: Pellegtini vows to fight to the end

Manuel Pellegrini admitted defeat by
Liverpool lingered in Manchester City's
minds as they were held to a 2-2 draw by
Sunderland at the Etihad Stadium.
The 2012 Premier League champions lost
3-2 to leaders Liverpool on Sunday and
their title hopes were heavily dented on
Wednesday as they drew their first of two
games in hand on their rivals.
City made a flying start as Fernandinho
broke the deadlock in the second minute,
only for a second-half brace from Connor
Wickham to hand the advantage to
Sunderland.
The hosts snatched a late draw courtesy of
a Samir Nasri strike, but Pellegrini believes
City's heads were elsewhere.
The stalemate leaves City six shy of
Liverpool with just one game in hand and
the Chilean coach admitted their
performance was lacking.
"There were a lot of things missing from
the team today," he told Sky Sports .
"I think the most important thing is we
could not take out of our minds the game
against Liverpool."
However, despite admitting a draw has
done their campaign more harm than good,
Pellegrini is not willing to rule City out of
the title race yet.
"We are in a worse position but there are
still mathematical chances and we will
fight to the end," he vowed.
City enjoyed the better start but Pellegrini
acknowledged the spirit of Sunderland,
claiming teams that are fighting for
survival prove to be dangerous at this
stage of the season.
"We started very well but as the game
continued we started losing the ball too
easy and we didn't recover well," he added.
"I always say that playing against
relegation teams at the end of the season
is very difficult because they fight.
"Sunderland fought a lot and played better
than we did at times."