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Manuel Pellegrini has lifted the lid on David Silva’s worrying loss of form - revealing the Spanish international has been playing through the pain barrier in a bid to keep Manchester City’s title bid alive.

The Chilean confirmed Silva is still struggling with the ankle injury that ruled him out for nine weeks before Christmas.

The 30-year-old showed signs of returning to his best on Saturday - making two goals in City’s 4-0 win against Aston Villa.

Silva’s indifferent form has sparked concern among supporters - and been a major factor as City have fallen away in the race for the title.

Addressing the playmaker’s performances, Pellegrini said: “David is coming back from a long - I can’t say an injury because it is a pain in his ankle.

“He is trying to improve as much as he can, but he continues to play not 100 percent comfortably.

“He did well against Villa and I hope if he is 100 percent he will continue improving.

Watch: Pellegrini on City's title ambitions

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“He is still feeling the pain.”

City have had to cope without a host of key players for much of the season with Sergio Aguero and Vincent Kompany also suffering long-term injuries.

To his credit Pellegrini has been reluctant to make excuses - but he admits City would have been able to produce more of a concerted title challenge with his star players available.

Victory against Villa keeps them in the hunt - and Pellegrini believes it will be one of his finest achievements if City are crowned champions against the backdrop of such a catalogue of injuries.

“The more problems you have the bigger achievement it is if you do it,” he said. “Now we need to continue to believe we can do it. To continue playing the way we did against Villa and the way we did in the Capital One Cup final and the Champions League.

“One of the merits of this club is that we were still involved in the title race despite being without our most important players - Kompany, Silva, and Aguero.

“We had them all at the start of the season and won five games in a row.

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“After that, I was very proud at the way the squad kept us involved in the four competitions with so many players out injured.

“But of course if we had had Vincent, Kun, Silva and Yaya 100 per ent then it changes the quality of the team.”

Pellegrini believes 75 points will be enough to win the title - meaning City will need to win eight of their remaining 10 games.

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Pellegrini added: “I think it is important not to think about how many games we need to win. I think it is just important to try and win the next game. Now to the end of the season we must be focussed on each game and try to win.

“At this moment we need not only to win our games, but also hope Leicester and Tottenham can lose some points and after that we will see which team has the most experience to play the last few games.”