City title charge over?

MANCHESTER City have vowed to fight to the end - but only their most optimistic supporters would back them to retain the league title.

The champions have fallen a near–insurmountable 15 points behind rivals Manchester United at the top of the Barclays Premier League with only nine games to go.

The latest blow came at Goodison Park as City were again outplayed by their bogey side Everton, losing 2–0 after goals from Leon Osman and Nikica Jelavic.

City play United next month but the objectives may be to salvage pride, delay the inevitable crowning of their neighbours and score a psychological blow ahead of a potential FA Cup semi–final meeting.

First–team coach David Platt said: "Our intention is to win football matches, full stop. It doesn't change anything for us between now and the end of the season.

"Every game we go into we have a focus and a professionalism to try to win it.

"That is what we try to do, to ensure we finish as high up the table as we possibly can and to try to ensure we win the FA Cup."

City failed to compete with Everton's enthusiasm and were fortunate Kevin Mirallas had already had a goal harshly disallowed before Osman struck his superb opener after 32 minutes.

The visitors had chances to equalise, most notably when Jan Mucha denied James Milner and Pablo Zabaleta in the second half and they could have had a penalty late on. But Everton deservedly held out and wrapped up the win in injury time - City's sixth defeat by Everton in eight meetings.