Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini has hit back at Chelsea rival Jose Mourinho over claims they've been 'lucky' with refereeing decisions this season. Pellegrini turned on his Chelsea counterpart and effectively accused him of trying to brainwash the public.

Asked if he thought it was a fair assessment that contentious decisions had gone City's way, Pellegrini said: "No, it isn't. It is very easy to say every week what is best for your team, but there is a very famous sentence: 'Lie, lie and something will remain (in people's minds)'.

"If you are talking about what happened at Tottenham (between Danny Rose and Edin Dzeko), it was a penalty and sending-off. The penalty was the biggest in the house. Everyone said Rose touched the ball but he had already gone through Dzeko before he made any contact with the ball.

"It was the correct decision and don't forget we scored four more goals and had already had six clear chances. There was so much between the teams that day and you can hardly argue that one decision changed the game.

"It was the same at Newcastle. Whether or not their disallowed goal was offside, we scored again, so that was not a decisive moment, either. In fact, the only time there has been an apology from a referee for an important mistake was when Mike Riley said sorry for the 93rd-minute penalty that saved a point for Chelsea against West Brom after Ramires dived."