Pablo Zabaleta has admitted Manchester City need to be more clinical as he rued the loss of six points in their last three home games.
Marten de Roon’s injury-time equaliser gave Middlesbrough a 1-1 draw at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday as the promoted club joined Everton and Southampton in securing a surprise point away at City.
And Zabaleta, who skippered City against Boro, highlighted the chances Sergio Aguero and Kevin De Bruyne missed to give Pep Guardiola’s side a 2-0 lead as reasons for the setback.
“We dominated all three games,” he said. “Against Everton it was the same thing. They only had one chance, we missed two penalties and a few chances.
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“Against Southampton, it was probably not the best performance, but [on Saturday] it’s the same thing as Everton. Especially in the first half, we did a really good first 45 minutes.
“Then in the second half, that chance for Aguero and the one for Kevin, it was a shame they did not score from them because then the game would have been over.
"But when you don't kill the game off, in the Premier League you cannot stop going until the last minute because we can always concede goals from crosses and things like that and it was a great cross and header."
City had beaten Barcelona 3-1 four days earlier and right-back Zabaleta admitted their exertions against the 2015 European champions came at a cost.
“Of course when you have a game like that in midweek, which is so emotionally and physically draining, it is hard,” he explained. “We saw the problem in the second half when we dropped a little of our intensity.
“But we were still controlling the ball. Middlesbrough pushed a bit more in the second half, but I can’t remember too much chances for them. Maybe [a shot from Alvaro] Negredo and then the goal.
“We are so disappointed because we have dropped six points playing at home. It’s something we would be worried about if we were not creating chances or were conceding too many goals.
“To win those games, maybe if you have 10 chances, you have got to be more clinical to secure the win and that’s how we were against Barcelona.
“We took our chances on the night and it made the difference.”
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