Manuel Pellegrini: It is important not to lose

Manchester City denied Leicester City the chance to overtake Arsenal on the Barclays Premier league table by sharing the spoils after a goalless draw at the King Power Stadium.

The 0-0 result made Leicester tie at 39 points with League Leaders Arsenal and City also jumped over Tottenham Hotspur to the third position, from fourth.

Manuel Pellegrini’s men, who had been 4-1 winners over Sunderland on Boxing Day while Leicester were beaten 1-0 at Liverpool, had the better of the first half, but found Kasper Schmeichel in fine form as Kevin De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling were denied by the Dane.

Leicester carried a threat of their own and could have gone in ahead had Marc Albrighton been able to hook Christian Fuchs’ delivery into the net after Joe Hart had been taken out of the equation.

Jamie Vardy spurned an even better chance when he blazed over after being put through one-on-one, while the returning Sergio Aguero was wayward with an excellent opening early in the second half.

The Man City striker had his penalty appeals waved away just past the hour, shortly before he was substituted, and Nicolas Otamendi brought another save from Schmeichel in the next attack.

Pellegrini was not so disappointed with the result, saying as the premiership race gets tighter that “if you cannot win, it’s important not to  lose”.

In his view, his team will be among those struggling to claim the title.

“I am sure in the second round we will be involved till the end for the fight for the title,” the Man City manager said.

“After playing [the next] six or seven games, in the first week of February maybe we can see more which are the teams that are involved in the fight.”

“We will play both Leicester and Arsenal at home in the second round.”