Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini maintains his side are as good as Barclays Premier League champions-elect Manchester United.
Mancini conceded several weeks ago that the destination of the trophy appeared to be the red side of Manchester and a 3-1 defeat for the current title holders at Tottenham could see United crowned champions sooner rather than later.
"It (the title race) was finished three or four weeks ago," Mancini said. "They are not a better team but they deserve to win this title because we lost a lot of points in games we probably didn't deserve to lose. But United won a lot of games in a row with goals and deserve to win the title."
An early Samir Nasri goal had set City on their way to dragging their seemingly forlorn title challenge on for another week but three goals in a scintillating seven-minute spell for Spurs left Mancini eying his side's defending.
"We did two big mistakes," Mancini said.
"It's not easy to play here against Tottenham. They are a really good team with good players and a good manager. To come here and played like we did is not easy. We played well, we gave a good performance for almost 80 minutes and we had a chance to score the second goal. But we didn't score and after that we did two big mistakes.
"We had the game under control. Tottenham were trying to win because it was important for them, but I think we lost the game through our own fault."
After seeing his side complete a dramatic comeback and earn a famous win, Spurs boss Andre Villas-Boas has urged his players to finish the season strongly.
"I think it was very important for the team to come back," he said. "In the first half we couldn't play our game the way we wanted the set back of suffering a goal so early affected our confidence.
"We have to continue, Wigan away will be difficult because Wigan are fighting for survival. You just have to gather the most amount of points as possible - that is our objective. Our game against Chelsea could be the decider in the end."
Source: PA
