Man City back to winning ways after Pellegrini AXES skipper Kompany

Centre half Kompany was one of five players dropped by Pellegrini following the back-to-back defeats to Barcelona and Liverpool.

Pablo Zabaleta, Samir Nasri, Fernandinho and Edin Dzeko were also paid the price for the Anfield defeat but Pellegrini's shake-up paid off with goals from David Silva and sub James Milner giving City a 2-0 win over bottom club Leicester.

Asked why Kompany was left out for the first time in his seven-year City career, Pellegrini said: "For the same reason Zabaleta, Fernandinho, Dzeko and Nasri – I think it was important to refresh the team physically and mentally after two difficult games.

"Vincent took the decision very well. It wasn't a difficult decision. I was thinking of a lot of things. We needed to refresh the team."

He refused to confirm whether Kompany will be back for City's next game at Burnley a week on Saturday.

"We will train on Thursday and Friday, the players have the weekend off then on Monday we will start thinking about the next game."

City were not at their best but Pellegrini was just relieved to collect three points and keep only their second clean sheet in 14 games.

Chelsea's win at West Ham ensured City remained five points adrift but Pelegrini says all his players can do is concentrate on winning all their remaining games and hope Jose Mourinho's team slip-up.

"We're not thinking about Chelsea," he added. "We can do nothing about what they are doing. We're just thinking about improving our performances, winning our games and then we will see at the end of the season if they have dropped points.

"It's always the same when you have a bad result the next game is always difficult. But the most important thing was to get three points and keep a clean sheet."

Leicester boss Nigel Pearson was furious his side were denied three penalties but refused to openly criticise referee Robert Madley, who also denied the Foxes a clear penalty in their FA Cup win at Tottenham in January.

"I thought we could have three penalties," he said. "But I don't think there is any point me talking about the referee.

"It was the same referee we had at Tottenham. It is up to the relevant authorities.

"But I don't want to dwell on negatives that we can't do anything about. The players have given everything and we have to take the positives from the performance into our remaining games."