Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini has insisted that his side "did not deserve to lose" their derby clash with Manchester United this afternoon.
Marcus Rashford got the only goal of the game at the Etihad Stadium to cut the gap between the local rivals to one point in a match that also saw City lose Joe Hart and Raheem Sterling to injury.
Martin Demichelis in particular put in a poor performance before being hauled off with less than an hour gone, and Pellegrini admitted that the centre-back had a "bad day".
"We did not deserve to lose, we dominated the game from the first minute. We were the only team who wanted to play the whole game but we missed three or four chance to score," he is quoted as saying by BBC Sport.
"Every player has bad days, Demichelis was nervous, it was not good for him to continue. We didn't score goals but that is not his fault."
The defeat leaves Man City 15 points behind league leaders Leicester and just one ahead of both West Ham United and Man United.
Barney Corkhill
