Roberto Mancini tore into his Manchester City players after the 3-1 defeat at Southampton which put a possibly fatal hole in their hopes of retaining the Premier League crown.
City produced one of their worst performances of the season at St Mary's with horrific mistakes from Joe Hart and Gareth Barry contributing to Mancini's troubles.
They are already nine points behind rivals Manchester United and that deficit could be extended to 12 if the Red Devils can beat Everton on Sunday.
Asked what the defeat meant for his team's title hopes, Mancini told ESPN: "We have 10%, maybe. I am disappointed with our performance. They deserved to win.
"It'll be very difficult to win the league. I use to be always be optimistic and want to be in this moment, but it's difficult.
"We didn't play well. We conceded a goal that I have never seen in my life. That's it. Now we can do nothing - only say congratulations to Southampton for their performance.
"I think (the players) understand that we played really bad. I think it's the worst game in the last two or three years, maybe.
"I've never seen our team concede goals like this. In the end we made two incredible mistakes. The performance was really poor. We played this game with only two or three players. Three versus 11 was really difficult.
"We're missing Vinny (Kompany) and missing (Matija) Nastasic, and we have some players who are not in form. They played really bad - without strength, without personality. I'm very disappointed in them.
"The players were away on international duty - that's not an excuse, but it is a reason. Some of our players came back on Friday and we played today. This made it difficult."
Update:
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what do you think?
Paul Gilbert
Couple of weeks ago - Mancini says the gap will be a lot smaller by the end of February, think he meant bigger - lol
philpdavid
Back to a real game. Maslak 1.50 (Nap). Napina 2.50. Dewala 3.50. Bitapon 4.50. all run at Southwell.
philpdavid
1st two won,Two to go, as easy as putting goals in the back of the City net.
brian foster
When will they learn,you can not build a team with a cheque book.Its been tried before,many times. All you buy are foreign players non of which have any elegance to the Club other than there inflated wages. Mancini should not be concerned about retaining the championship,more that he should be looking at Chelsea who are on fire and only 4 point behind City or Tottenham who are only 5 points behind. If he finishes 3rd or 4th his masters will use that cheque book to replace him regardless of how many years left on his contract,such is the state of the game when money rules over the SPORT.
philpdavid
3 winners in and 1 to go. Candy from a baby springs to mind.
philpdavid
4 out of 4 at Southwell so easy.
philpdavid
4 out 4 winners at Southwell, Candy from a baby springs to mind.
Martin Massey
Well done enjoy your winnings
Gary Fitton
9:26pm on 9/2/2013
Shades of "we can't catch united" 2012?
Ben Ralph
7:31am on 10/2/2013
They won't catch Utd. Overpaid, overindulged superstars with superstar egos.