Manchester City full-back Pablo Zabaleta has urged his side to improve their away form or risk losing the Premier League title race.

Manuel Pellegrini's men have lost four of their six fixtures on the road this season, the latest resulting in a 1-0 defeat to Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on Sunday.

"There is a long way to go and we have too many games to the end, but when you lose points like that it will be really difficult to fight for the title," the Manchester Evening News quotes Zabaleta as saying.

"When you have a defeat like this you want to play as quickly as you can, but we now go into an international break, and then we will face Spurs at home, which will be a crucial game for us."

City are currently eighth in the league table, six points adrift of leaders Arsenal.