Manuel Pellegrini has dismissed suggestions Manchester City will surrender their Premier League crown to Chelsea, following his side's latest defeat at West Ham.
City were beaten 2-1 at Upton Park on Saturday, leaving them five points behind table-toppers Chelsea, who face Manchester United on Sunday. Should Jose Mourinho's side win at Old Trafford, their lead over City would extend to eight points.
The Premier League champions suffered their second defeat of the season via goals from Morgan Amalfitano and Diafra Sakho -- his sixth goal in six starts -- with David Silva's excellent strike only a consolation.
"We are just starting the season, we have 80 points left to play for," Pellegrini is quoted by the BBC as saying after his side's defeat. "So it is early. We will continue fighting because there is no title being handed out at the moment.
"West Ham played very well and with a very high intensity. We had a lot of chances to score but it is difficult to win if you don't take them. We were very unlucky in the second half, we hit the post and went just wide with another.
"In the first half we did not play with enough intensity, I thought they would be more tired in the second half and we would be able to move the ball easier which we did but in the end we couldn't take our chances.
"I don't think it was a fault of our team for the performance in the first half, it was more about the intensity of West Ham and you must credit them for that."