Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini refused to blame the last-minute withdrawal of David Silva for their shock 2-1 defeat against West Ham on Saturday.
Pellegrini was forced into a late reshuffle when Silva, City’s outstanding player this season, succumbed to injury in the warm-up.
Jesus Navas was selected to start in his place with Kevin De Bruyne moved to play a more central No10 role. Teenager Patrick Roberts was named on the bench for Navas.
‘David has a kick in the calf. He tried to warm up but he felt his muscle was still stiff so he didn’t play,’ said Pellegrini.
‘But I don’t want to use as that as an excuse. I don’t think you can put it down to one individual player. We have defended with concentration and intensity in our last two games and we conceded two easy goals.’
Centre-half Eliaquim Mangala was replaced at half-time by Martin Demichelis with City already trailing 2-1, which turned out to be the final score.
‘He (Mangala) was injured, a muscle injury,’ added Pellegrini.
Hammers fans chanted ‘We’re going to win the league’ after they mantained their 100 per cent away record this season.
The manaer Slaven Bilic said: ‘The players have done brilliantly. This game was different to the games at The Emirates and Anfield. With the greatest respect, this (City) team is the best in the league and we knew it was going to be like that.
‘We knew we had to score goals and run like crazy, and be lucky when needed. It is impossible to stop the players they have on the pitch for 90 minutes. We did it, and we didn’t nick it.
‘If they had equalised fair enough, but we also had chances at 2-0 and 2-1. That is why I am so proud of our team performance. Not only fighting-wise, but also playing-wise.’
Of the rising expectations at Upton Park, with Norwich City and Sunderland up next, Bilic said; ‘We are not Real Madrid, we are going to have ups and downs. Where will this take us? I don’t know but it is going to be good!’
West Ham scored twice in the first 31 minutes through Victor Moses and Diafra Sakho with City’s only reply coming on at the stroke of half-time from De Bruyne.
Bilic also gave Hammers debuts in the second half to deadline day signings Michail Antonio and Nikica Jelavic who both came on as substitutes.