Manuel Pellegrini praised Saints for their display against his free-scoring Manchester City side at St Mary's.

Life away from the Etihad Stadium has been tough for City, who have won just two away Barclays Premier League matches this season - the latest of which came at West Brom last Wednesday.

It had looked like Pellegrini would oversee another as City came flying out of the blocks on the south coast, with Sergio Aguero sweeping home early on.

However, Saints rallied with a performance that belied their recent poor form and deservedly levelled just before the break through Dani Osvaldo's exquisite strike.

Mauricio Pochettino's side bossed the remainder of the match but were unable to find a winner.

"It is a good point," Pellegrini said. "I don't feel like we lost two points.

"In all the other games away I felt like we deserved more but here this was the result that both teams deserved.

"I always say that if you don't play well and you can't win, then at least don't lose. We didn't play well but we got a point."

It had looked early on as if City would run amok at St Mary's, as Aguero struck home and Aleksandar Kolarov nodded just wide moments later.

Aguero also wasted a gilt-edged chance midway through the first half - something City were made to rue as Saints' high pressing and possession game made life difficult.

"I know how (Mauricio) Pochettino likes his teams to play and they did very well," Pellegrini said, having faced the former Espanyol boss during the pair's time in Spain.

"It's a hard place to come. It's a very good team, in a good position in the table.

"They lost their last few games against Arsenal, Chelsea and Aston Villa but before that they played really well.

"We lost control of the game. We started well, we had chances to score the second one and after that I think we started to play too quickly.

"That was the problem during the first half."