• Premier League

Pellegrini unconcerned by Chelsea gap

Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini claimed he was not overly concerned about Chelsea's growing Premier League lead, but admitted he was worried about his side's performance after needing a late goal to snatch a 1-1 draw against Hull.

City had looked to be heading towards a highly damaging loss until substitute James Milner struck a superb injury-time free-kick to grab a point at the Etihad Stadium against the relegation-threatened Tigers.

The result still left City seven points behind leaders Chelsea, without a win in five games and looking bereft of the inspiration they will need to mount a successful title defence.

David Meyler gave Hull a surprise lead at City © Getty Images

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Pellegrini said: "We are not concerned about the gap -- we are concerned about how we can return to our normal performance, how we can score goals again and resolve the problems that other teams are putting in their box.

"Once again we couldn't create space against a team with 10 players behind the ball. We didn't have clear chances to score because we're not playing well when attacking.

"But you are not seeing a team with doubt. The team is running, the team has spirit, the team has possession of the ball. We work and try."

Pellegrini tried to look on the positive side, knowing that the picture would have looked even worse had Milner not staged his late salvage act.

"Before the game if you'd said we were going to draw against Hull I wouldn't have liked it, but the way we did it was not so bad with a goal in the last minute," he continued.

"In the 90 minutes we had all the possession and attacked and attacked. But we only created one chance and that was when Kun [Sergio Aguero] hit the crossbar, so it's very clear, we must work and try to improve in that sense."

Milner's late heroics underlined his value to the club but the England international is out of contract in the summer and, despite talks that have been ongoing for some time, a new deal remains unsigned.

It has been claimed that Milner may have reservations about committing to a new contract because he may not be able to command a regular starting spot.

Again he was on the bench and Pellegrini said: "I needed to make changes because last two games we didn't score one goal here against Arsenal or Middlesbrough.

"I made changes to bring back Samir Nasri from injury but James Milner always has a space.

"He scored a beautiful goal from a free-kick. He has started a lot of games but it's a team problem, not just one individual player."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd