Swansea inflict further woe on Mancini’s flops
SWANSEA (1) vs MAN CITY (0)
MANCHESTER CITY manager Roberto Mancini denied Mario Balotelli and Yaya Toure were involved in a half-time tunnel bust-up during yesterday’s damaging defeat at Swansea, but admitted his players are beginning to feel the strain after relinquishing top spot in the Premier League.
Luke Moore’s 83rd-minute header condemned City to their second defeat in three days following on from Thursday’s 1-0 Europa League reverse against Sporting Lisbon.
City are now staring up at neighbours Manchester Untied for the first time in five months and Mancini (inset) admitted the pressure is beginning to intensify, but rejected reports that two of his star players partook in a heated disagreement.
“Nothing happened [with Balotelli and Toure], said Mancini. “I think that all the players are so tired. This is normal after seven months but I think we have a lot of energy to go back to the top.
“It depends on us because we have 10 games to go and anything can happen. It’s important that we are very confident together because it changes nothing. It is better to stay on the top and now we are behind, but this doesn’t change our targets.”
Joe Hart saved an early Scott Sinclair penalty but had no answer to Moore’s late header. City thought they had levelled in injury time but Micah Richards’s header was ruled out for off side.