Manuel Pellegrini says Manchester City were unlucky after their defeat at Crystal Palace which sees them surrender the second place in the Premier League.
It is City's third defeat in their last five league games and with Arsenal and Manchester United both winning on Saturday it means they now have to be extremely careful in the fight for a top four finish.
"From the beginning to the end, we had a lot of possession and a lot of chances," Pellegrini said.
"We lost the game because they scored a goal which was clearly offside and then scored again with a beautiful free-kick - that was all they did in the game.
"The beginning of the play [for the first goal] is offside. I don't know if the player who scored was offside - maybe he is behind the ball, I'm not sure.
"I don't want to use excuses about the referee. It is someone else's job to analyse the referee. It is not the manager's duty.
"We were very unlucky not to score more goals but I am very pleased in the way my team played. We missed a lot of chances to score - that was the reason we lost this game.
"Every time you drop points, it is a big blow.
"Every point you lose is important when it comes to the end of the season but we must try to continue playing the way we did today because we normally win games this way.
"The last seven games are very important. There are 21 points to play for. We must try and win as many points as possible and we will see which position in the table we finish."
