Manuel Pellegrini took no pleasure in being proved correct but Manchester City's surprise 2-1 home defeat to West Ham illustrated his belief that the Premier League title is far from over.
The league
leaders saw their 11-match winning streak brought to an end thanks to first
half goals from Victor Moses and Diafra Sakho for a West Ham side that has won
all three of their away games this season - at Arsenal, Liverpool and, now,
City.
The day
started with City having the potential to move 14 points clear of defending
champions Chelsea had results gone their way.
Instead,
Slaven Bilic's West Ham moved to within three points of City despite Kevin De
Bruyne's goal late in the first half giving the home side hope of continuing
their unbeaten ways.
"We
never believed, because we won five games, we were champions of the Premier
League," said Pellegrini.
"We
have to play 32 games more, 96 more points, so nobody can believe that."
City were
without injured captain and defender Vincent Kompany as well as influential
forward David Silva, who picked up a calf injury in the pre-game warm-up.
Pellegrini
refused to use their absences as an excuse and, instead, criticised his team's
collective lack of concentration for their defensive woes and mistakes.
"I
don't want to compare one season with another because we have just started this
season," he said.
"But we
have lost two games where we haven't played with the concentration and
intensity we need in defending. So we conceded twice against Juventus (in the
Champions League), they had two shots and we conceded two goals. And today,
exactly the same."
Manchester
City's lead over Chelsea had been reduced to eight earlier when Kurt Zouma and
Eden Hazard gave the Blue Lions a controversial 2-0 win over nine-man Arsenal
on Saturday as the simmering feud between the bitter rivals boiled over with
red cards for Gabriel and Santi Cazorla.
The
acrimonious relationship between Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho and Gunners boss
Arsene Wenger seeped through to both teams at Stamford Bridge in a tetchy
London derby featuring even more flashpoints than usual.
Wenger was
furious Mike Dean opted not to send off Diego Costa following a clash with
Laurent Koscielny and the referee further infuriated the Frenchman when he
dismissed Gabriel for kicking Costa and then showed Cazorla a red card in the
second half.
"I would
not like to be Mike Dean tonight. Costa twice should be sent off," Wenger
said.
"In
every game Costa has aggravation and he gets away with it because of the
weakness of the referee."
Mourinho's
response felt designed to provoke Wenger as he said: "I don't have a view
on the sending off. Man of the match for sure was Diego Costa. He brought
everything to the game."
Meanwhile,
the fierce rivalry between the two managers again reached new heights.
"I
played against Arsenal 12, 15, 18 times, I don't know, and only once he
(Wenger) didn't moan," said Mourinho, who shared a perfunctory handshake
with his opposite number prior to kick-off.
"In
that day, we lost the game, we lost the Cup. It was not good for us. We behave
in a fantastic way. No excuses, not crying, not moaning, just Mr Jose Mourinho,
my players and Chelsea Football Club."
Elsewhere,
Odion Ighalo kept Newcastle in the relegation zone as the Nigerian forward's
double inspired Watford's 2-1 win at St James' Park.
Ighalo gave
Watford a 10th minute lead with a low strike and he increased their advantage
with his fourth goal in six matches in the 28th minute.
Newcastle
ended a nearly 500-minute goal drought when Dutch defender Daryl Janmaat netted
in the 62nd minute, but Steve McClaren's team were unable to avoid their third
consecutive loss.
"No-one
said this job was going to be easy, we didn't think it would be. We know now
this is a tough job," McClaren said.
Ten-man
Sunderland slipped to the bottom of the table alongside north-east rivals
Newcastle after their fourth defeat of the season.
Bournemouth,
in the top tier for the first time, raced into a two-goal lead inside the first
nine minutes, with Callum Wilson striking in the fourth minute before Matt
Ritchie smashed in a superb volley.
Sunderland's
miserable day was completed when French defender Younes Kaboul was sent off for
a second booking in the 74th minute.
Saido
Berahino came in from the cold to fire West Bromwich Albion to a 1-0 win at
local rivals Aston Villa.
Berahino had
threatened to go on strike after Albion refused to sell him to Tottenham on
transfer deadline day and was dropped for several matches.
Former
Barcelona forward Bojan Krkic put Stoke ahead in the 13th minute and Jon
Walters doubled their lead seven minutes later.
But the
second-placed Foxes had come from two goals down to beat Aston Villa last week
and they reduced the deficit in the 51st minute through Riyad Mahrez's penalty
before Jamie Vardy equalised in the 59th minute.
Everton's
Kevin Mirallas was sent off for a foul on Modou Barrow in the final moments of
his side's 0-0 draw at Swansea.
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