Mauricio Pochettino was furious over key refereeing decisions that he felt went against his side as they were beaten 4-1 by title chasing Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.

The Saints boss was angry with the decision to award City an early penalty as Edin Dzeko went down in the box under the challenge of Jose Fonte while the second goal was clearly well offside.

“I think there’s two decisions that killed the game - the penalty that we conceded and the second goal. Those two moments killed the game,” fumed Pochettino.

“The only positive I can think of is that the first 45 minutes we were superior to a team that is actually equipped to win the Premier League.

“But to beat a team like Manchester City, a team that is full of world class players, not only do you need to have the perfect game but also the refereeing decisions have to be fair and that did not happen.

“I have just seen it on TV and I don’t think you can give a penalty like that after just two minutes.

“I think it’s unexplainable and I think it’s not right.

“The second decision that did not go our way was a clear offside and it was clearly two metres offside and it did seem like a type of game you play at school where you get these dumb refereeing decisions.”