Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini maintains title hope

Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini insists his side's Premier League title ambitions are not over following a 3-2 defeat at Liverpool.

The loss left City seven points behind the Reds, although Pellegrini's men have two games in hand.

"This is not the finish of the Premier League," said the Chilean.

Pellegrini said the "most damage" done to City was that their destiny was now out of their hands but "we are still going to keep fighting".

He added: "We have two games in hand and can be just one point behind Liverpool if we win those two games and they still have to play Chelsea.

"There are a lot of things that will happen from now until the end of the season. We'll try to recover as soon as we can and try to win next Wednesday against Sunderland."

City went behind to goals from Raheem Sterling and Martin Skrtel before equalising through a David Silva effort and Glen Johnson own goal.

However, captain Vincent Kompany's mistake allowed Philippe Coutinho to score Liverpool's winner.

"Normally, Vincent is great defender," said Pellegrini of the Belgian, who was an injury doubt before the game. "Today he made a mistake but when we win or lose all the players have the same responsibility."

Pellegrini thought his side might have had a penalty for a Skrtel handball in stoppage time but he insisted his side's defeat was not down to referee Mark Clattenburg.

"The first 20 minutes, we didn't mark in the way we should. Liverpool started very aggressively," said the City boss.

"The last 15 minutes of the first half, we had two clear chances to score. In the second half there was just one team on the pitch and that was us.

"There was a clear penalty for a Martin Skrtel handball in the area but I don't think the result was because of the referee. He did well in a difficult game."

Influential midfielder Yaya Toure was substituted midway through the first half after injuring a hamstring, and Pellegrini said the Ivory Coast international would be assessed on Monday.