Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini believes the club's decision to announce the appointment of Pep Guardiola could have cost them the title.
City officially confirmed that Guardiola would move from Bayern Munich this summer on transfer deadline day, on Feb. 1. That was just before the club went into a key run of games, including home fixtures against title rivals Tottenham and Leicester.
A disjointed City team, who had also lost Kevin De Bruyne to a knee injury in the Capital One Cup semifinal a couple of weeks earlier, were beaten in both matches before going down 5-1 at Chelsea in the FA Cup fifth round when Pellegrini chose to play youth players and prioritise other competitions.
City have recovered their form in recent weeks, winning the last three Premier League games to climb above Arsenal into third place. They also face Real Madrid in the semifinals of the Champions League next week after beating Paris Saint-Germain in the quarterfinals.
"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," Pellegrini told the Daily Mirror.
"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.
"In February, we were involved in all the competitions and we were forced to leave the FA Cup.
"We must try to finish now playing this way, trying to be as near as possible at the top of the table, trying to play the final of the Champions League and we will finish a good season if we win two titles."