A disputed penalty denied City the victory that would have hauled them within a point of second-placed Arsenal and the Blues boss was as angry with himself as he was with his side’s lacklustre performance.
Mancini admitted: “I am disappointed with myself because I am the manager, and if we don’t play well I blame myself. But we can’t concede two goals every game, we must do something (about it) and we must play better.
“We played well for the first 50 minutes and then we forgot to play. I should change something. We must think about improving - we should try to play football again, because in the last few weeks we’ve forgotten this.
“We didn’t play well. Sometimes it’s impossible, in January and February the team are tired, but a team like us should be able to defend strongly and win 1-0.”
City have not won away since December, and after twice taking the lead through skipper Carlos Tevez and an Aleks Kolarov free kick, Craig Gardner salvaged a point for strugglers Birmingham from the penalty spot.
Substitute Patrick Vieira was penalised, but City’s manager insisted: “There was absolutely no penalty. If it was a penalty, then the referee has to give five every game. There was a penalty for us ten minutes earlier, it was handball in the box.”
Clearly in the mood to make changes, Mancini is not in the mood to concede that top spot is now beyond the Blues. He said: “The season is very long. In football two or three weeks can change everything, but we have to look at ourselves.
Football is strange. Three months ago, we were nine points behind Chelsea. But we have to play like a team, play football and not concede goals
