Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini has blamed the announcement of Pep Guardiola as his successor for his team dropping out of the Premier League title race.
The North-West outfit revealed on February 1 that Guardiola would leave his job as Bayern Munich boss to take over at City on a three-year deal this summer.
In the fortnight following the announcement, City, who are now 13 points behind the top spot, lost to title rivals Leicester City and Tottenham Hotspur on home turf.
After earning a 3-0 triumph over Chelsea on Saturday, Pellegrini admitted that the timing of the Guardiola announcement affected his team.
"Of course for different reasons we lost important games in February, against Leicester and Tottenham - two games which do not allow us to be involved in the title," The Mirror quotes Guardiola as saying.
"I am frustrated because we never expected to lose those games at home against Leicester and Tottenham, but there are a lot of reasons why those things happened, it's not normal in the way we are going to finish the season. At the start of February there was news about the change of the manager, about players who will not continue here next season, about a lot of things that involved the minds of all the players.
"We had those defeats at home, but now we are stable again and very happy to finish playing the way we have in these last games. It's not easy for the players when you read in newspapers all things that will happen next season - all the players who will go out, all the players that will come in - it's not easy for the players to focus their mind."
City are currently third in the table, level on points with fourth-placed Arsenal with five games left to play.
Danielle Joynson
