Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini has admitted that his side's Premier League title challenge this season has been curtailed due to the public announcement of Pep Guardiola's impending arrival.

It was announced back in February that current Bayern Munich boss Guardiola would be replacing Pellegrini as manager of City this summer and the news certainly created quite a storm in the English media.

Following the announcement, City endured a dramatic slump when winning only once in six matches between February 6 and April 2, and as a result, the Citizens have seen their title challenge fade away without much ceremony.

Now outgoing manager Pellegrini has gone on to speak regarding the sudden loss of form and has admitted that the premature announcement of the managerial change, married with increased transfer rumours, mentally affected his side.

The Chilean said: "Of course for different reasons we lost important games in February, against Leicester and Tottenham - two games which do not allow us to be involved in the title.

"I am frustrated because we never expected to lose those games at home against Leicester and Tottenham. But there are a lot of reasons why those things happened, it's not normal in the way we are going to finish the season.

"At the start of February there was news about the change of the manager, about players who will not continue here next season, about a lot of things that involved the minds of all the players.

"We had those defeats at home, but now we are stable again and very happy to finish playing the way we have in these last games. It's not easy for the players when you read in newspapers all things that will happen next season — all the players who will go out, all the players that will come in. It's not easy for the players to focus their mind.

"But I think the merit of this squad is always that it had a lot of character, personality. We never give up, we continue in the same way, and I hope we will see in the future in the Champions League — I am sure this team, playing in this way, can play in the final."