Manuel Pellegrini refused to accept his swansong will end without a Premier League title after Manchester City failed to close the gap on leaders Leicester City following a Carrow Road stalemate.

The Citizens could be 12 points behind if the Foxes beat Newcastle United on Monday night in the East Midlands but Pellegrini, who will leave the club at the end of the season to be replaced by Pep Guardiola, has no intention of throwing in the towel.

'Every time you drop points it can be more difficult, but that will not change my mind. If you mathematically have a chance to do it, you must always think you can do it,' he said. 'My mind is always focused now to the next game and while it is mathematically possible we must try to do it. If you ask me before the first game of the season what we must do, we must try to win all the games and we continue with the same mentality. You must continue thinking in a positive way. We must not give up.

'The most important thing now is to be focused on the Champions League game we have to play on Tuesday, to try to qualify for the next stage. After that we have to play against Manchester United on Sunday and try to win again the three points. And at the end of the season we'll see how many points we can have and in which position we'll be.'

Pellegrini had to deflect questions on David Silva's fitful display, with Manchester City's creative spark only carrying a sporadic influence.

'David is playing with some problem in his ankle, but it's not a problem that doesn't allow him to play. He's not 100pc comfortable, but he tried in different ways,' he said.

'All of our players tried, but we couldn't do it. We are always talking with him and with the doctor. He wants to play. It's not just the responsibility of David to create space. We had wingers that must win their one versus one or a centre forward who must try to create more space. Always when you cannot win it's a problem for the team so not just a case of focusing on one player.'