Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini cursed Manchester City's luck but said he doesn't fear for his job as his side's Premier League title hopes took another huge dent with Monday's defeat.
Crystal Palace delivered the latest blow to City's chase to retain their title with a 2-1 victory at Selhurst Park. City failed to lift themselves from fourth position and find themselves nine points behind Chelsea having played a game more.
The result puts Pellegrini's position at the club under more scrutiny, but the manager said: "I'm not concerned about my job. That is one thing I am never concerned with.
"I never have fear about it, I do my work, I'm very happy. The team maybe have a difficult season but never worry about me."
Even though City dominated possession throughout the game and had 22 shots at goal compared to just five from Palace, Pellegrini's side failed to make their superiority count and he had few excuses as he spoke to Sky Sports.
When asked whether his side's title defence was now at an end an evasive Pellegrini offered a snappy response.
"We are not talking about the title or Chelsea," the Chilean said. "We are thinking only about winning our games. That is the only duty we have. Then at the end of the season, we will see which team has the most points with the second place, the third place, the fourth place. We don't think about any more than that.
"Every time you drop points it is a big blow. At the end of the season, every point you drop is costly, but you can lose once playing this way. If we play this way again, normally you win."
"I am very pleased with the way my team played. They played really well. From the beginning to the end we had a lot of possession and lots of chances and we lose the game because they score a goal from an offside and a beautiful free kick. That was the only thing they did the whole game.
"We had a lot of chances and we were very unlucky not to score more goals. I don't want to have excuses about referees and the offside goal. It's not the job of the managers to analyse the referees."
There was more than a hint of offside about Glenn Murray's opener, with both the striker and Scott Dann appearing to be beyond the last man, while Murray was also involved in controversy at the other end when the ball hit his arm in the penalty area.
"It was a clear offside. Also it was a clear penalty," Pellegrini said. "But with the way we played we must win this game. Its difficult to understand the result, we played a good game from the beginning to the end, we had a lot of chances to score.
"Although the second goal was a beautiful free kick, it's the only thing I remember near our box, so it's difficult to understand but football happens like this."
Pellegrini also did his best to play down the importance of next Sunday's derby against Manchester United at Old Trafford, where a win for the home side will allow them to open a four-point lead on their local rivals with just six games left to play.
"Every game is important," Pellegrini said. "We have 21 points [to play for] and normally it is just one point or two point between each position, so we have to try to win as many points as we can."
Information from Press Association was used in this report.