• Premier League

Mancini unaware of reported Balotelli bust-up

Mario Balotelli had a frustrating afternoon at Swansea © PA Photos

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Roberto Mancini claimed he had no knowledge of a reported half-time altercation between Yaya Toure and Mario Balotelli during Manchester City's 1-0 defeat to Swansea on Sunday.

Mancini was also extremely vague on the injury problem that forced Gareth Barry off the field prior to half-time. The City boss only revealed that Barry had been nursing the problem for a few weeks, but the Italian was unclear as to the cause of the issue.

"Gareth has a problem, I don't know what, but for three weeks. Not a big injury, a small problem," said Mancini, who had nothing to offer on the alleged disagreement between Toure and Balotelli.

Defeat sees City fall behind rivals United in the race for the Premier League title. Mancini's men also have the more difficult run-in on paper, but the Italian is refusing to panic.

"It's been difficult the last four days for me, but football is this - sometimes you can lose," the City boss said, after defeat to Swansea followed a reverse in Lisbon against Sporting.

"I don't think that we deserved to lose this game. I should say that Swansea played very well in the first 30 minutes. They played very good football. But in the second half we had control of the game. We missed three or four chances on the counter-attack and we conceded a stupid goal.

"Now 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.

"I think that this championship maybe will be decided three games from the end. The season is long. What's happened today can happen also to United in the next game and we can go again on the top. It will change nothing."

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