Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini was frustrated to see his side drop points in a 0-0 draw against Aston Villa on Sunday.
The Premier League leaders hit the woodwork through Aleksandar Kolarov and Fernando at Villa Park, while Raheem Sterling felt he should have been awarded a first-half penalty after a challenge from Ciaran Clark.
Pellegrini insisted City fully deserved to beat Villa, pointing to the fact that the league’s bottom club failed to register a shot on target in new manager Remi Garde’s first match in charge.
“Of course we are frustrated – we deserved to win the game,” Pellegrini told Sky Sports.
“They didn’t shoot once in the whole game to our goalkeeper. These things happen in football and we were unlucky not to score in the three or four options [chances] that we had – that happens in football.
“I was very happy with the way we played, especially in the second half with good pressing and movement.
“I think we started a little bit by waiting to find out which kind of team we were playing – it can be hard when you face a new manager and you don’t know the way they want to play. Then finally we played really well in the second half but didn’t score.”
Pellegrini was not surprised to hear Fabian Delph booed when he came off the bench against his former side, while he was reluctant to discuss referee Craig Pawson’s decision not to award City a penalty.
He said: “I don’t talk about it – the referee decides it is not a penalty so it is not a penalty.
“People will boo because fans never want players to leave their team, but for Fabian it was very important to try to continue improving his career.”
The former Real Madrid coach conceded the loss of Wilfried Bony to injury mid-way through the first half scuppered his tactical plans, with Sergio Aguero already absent.
Pellegrini added: “Unfortunately Bony has that injury and it was difficult for us to replace him without Kun [Aguero].
“Of course it is difficult when you lose your striker in the beginning of a game that you need him – especially when you have so many defenders inside the other box.”