Manchester City will have to win at least nine
of their remaining 11 games to win the
Premier League title, says manager Manuel
Pellegrini.
Fourth-placed City are 10 points behind leaders
Leicester after having lost their last three league
games.
Pellegrini feels 75 points will win the title - a tally
his side are currently 28 points off achieving.
"We have just had a bad moment but we have 33
points [available] to try to reach it," said Pellegrini.
"I said a couple of months ago, before we ended
the first round of fixtures, that for me maybe the
winner will have less than 80 points. It is
impossible to know but I am sure we will have a
champion of around 75 points or more.
"We are not going to give up. Ten points is a lot
but we have one game [in hand] and in the
Premier League you never know when you are
going to lose points.
"I don't see why the players would be in a
negative mind. I think they try to win every time
they play."
City, who won the Capital One Cup on penalties
against Liverpool last Sunday and are still in the
Champions League, have won just one league
game since the start of February - a 1-0 success at
Sunderland.
Since then they have suffered three successive
league defeats, the latest of which was a 3-0 loss
at Liverpool on Wednesday.
Manchester United and West Ham have taken
advantage of City's poor form in recent weeks
and are now challenging for their top-four place,
with the former level on points and the latter a
point behind.
However, Pellegrini is refusing to contemplate the
prospect of City failing to qualify for the
Champions League in his final season before he is
replaced by Bayern Munich boss Pep Guardiola.
"Don't ask me about thinking in a negative way
because I never do it," he added. "It's not in my
mind, thinking about that at this moment.
"It's important to improve our performance to try
to continue fighting first for the title of the
Premier League."
City will be expected to return to winning ways
this weekend when they host Aston Villa, who are
bottom of the league having won just three
league games all campaign.
"It must be [victory] because we play at home
against a team that is not in a good position - the
worst position in the Premier League - but I think
the worst mistake we can make is to think we
have already won the game," said Pellegrini.
"We must concentrate and try not to make
mistakes. All the teams in the relegation positions
are difficult because they try to win in any way. I
hope we recover our performance and win three
points."
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