Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini accused his players of showing a lack of strength and personality after this evening's 3-1 loss at Southampton, and feels his side now have only a 10 per cent chance of retaining the Barclays Premier League title.

Inexplicable mistakes by Joe Hart and Gareth Barry helped Saints achieve their first win under Mauricio Pochettino in style.

Hart could have possibly done better with the shot that led to Jason Puncheon's opener, and there was no doubting the England goalkeeper's culpability for Steven Davis' bundled second goal for the hosts.

Edin Dzeko reduced the deficit as half-time approached, but soon after the break Southampton's two-goal cushion was restored as Barry passed into his own goal unchallenged.

"I am disappointed with our performance. They deserved to win," said Mancini.

"We didn't play well. We conceded a goal that I have never seen in my life. That's it. Now we can do nothing - only say congratulations to Southampton for their performance.

"I think (the players) understand that we played really bad. I think it's the worst game in the last two or three years, maybe."

"We're missing Vinny (Kompany) and missing (Matija) Nastasic, and we have some players who are not in form. They played really bad - without strength, without personality. I'm very disappointed in them."

Asked what this defeat meant for his team's title chances, he replied: "We have 10 per cent, maybe."