Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini was delighted after his side's 1-0 win in the derby against Manchester United.
The Citizens were coming from a number of disappointing results in Europe and the Premier League and will take heart from the afternoon's narrow win which sees close the gap from leaders Chelsea to six points.
"Of course it was hard," Pellegrini said.
"Derby games are special games for both teams. Manchester United have very good players and if you give them time and space they can decide the game.
"We worked hard and played very well until we scored but maybe after that we didn't continue to play the way we were.
"We had a lot of possession in the first 45 minutes and had two clear chances of a goal.
"We had at least one and a half penalties. For Yaya Toure it was a penalty and a sending off but we continued to play with trust that we we would score.
"We have 28 games more to play, which is a lot of points. Nobody can know what will happen.
"I said last week we were in a similar position to last year. Nobody knows how it will finish but we will continue to try and retain our title."
