Manuel Pellegrini is confident that Manchester City's poor away form will not hamper their challenge for the Premier League title.

The Citizens are yet to win on their travels this term and suffered their second away defeat on Saturday when they twice surrendered the lead to gift Aston Villa a 3-2 victory in West Midlands.

City are five points behind early pacesetters Arsenal in the table, but Pellegrini has insisted that the Blues have plenty of time to improve and is "absolutely sure" that they will be in the running for honours come the end of the season.

"I think the Premier League is very regular," Pellegrini told reporters. "I don't know how many teams will be fighting for the title because we are just starting. It is a very tough league and the differences between teams are not too much.

"We are just starting working and we hope that we will improve in the future so we can win the games we must win. We are not thinking about the title at this moment. We are thinking about winning the most amount of matches.

"In the Premier League the differences can be very small. So we can't know what will happen in the month of May but, playing the way we are playing, I am absolutely sure that we are going to be fighting for the league."

Man City's next away trip in the top flight is a meeting with West Ham United at Upton Park after the international break.