Pep Guardiola said that Manchester City cannot afford more setbacks like this if they are to have any hope of winning the Premier League title.
The Blues headed into a home game with struggling West Bromwich Albion knowing that a win would take them to within three points of leaders Liverpool and Tottenham, but a poor collective performance saw them drop two more points as the newly-promoted side frustrated them.
Sam Johnstone made two excellent late saves to deny Ilkay Gundogan and Raheem Sterling, yet defeat would have been unfair on a Baggies side that were not troubled often enough before stoppage time.
While the strange nature of the season means that they are still within touching distance of the top of the table, Guardiola warned that they have to be winning these kind of games if they can expect to challenge for the Premier League again.
"If we want to be there, we have to win these games," the manager said. "All respect to West Bromwich [Albion] but we know it. Sometimes we dropped points fairly but you have to win the games to be there. We are in early December and there are a lot of games to play.
"It was an important week. We didn't start well in terms of the three points but we have to continue for this weird situation and got to Southampton and try to do a good game."
