Mancini under pressure as City humbled again

ROBERTO MANCINI angrily removed the scarf that is fast resembling a noose around his neck at Molineux but there is a growing sense that more serious issues are unravelling.

The Manchester City manager had read the riot act to his squad days before about the perils of drinking alcohol but must have felt like drowning his own sorrows after a sobering afternoon that could not have been more poignantly timed.

Ten games in last season and Mark Hughes had lost only once in the Premier League, eventually paying the price in December with the sack.

It was a decision that still looks as harsh as it was controversial as Mancini has passed the same stage now and has a worse record than the Welshman.

He may appear unmoved by the threat of the sack but any more performances like this and he will become the latest incumbent at Eastlands to leave as a casualty of such bloated expectation levels.

The urbane Italian admitted the 2-1 defeat at Wolves had been the worst display of his 10-month spell before claiming a minute later City can still win the title. Despite spending a fortune, it still seems the one thing he can’t buy is team spirit.

Emmanuel Adebayor and Vincent Kompany rowed on the pitch and Mario Balotelli produced a dreadful full debut before speeding off in his own car after the game.

James Milner arrived at Eastlands as the PFA’s Young Player of the Year but looked a pale imitation of the effervescent midfielder that dominated games at Aston Villa while Gareth Barry has gone like his passing – backwards.

And despite spending such vast wads of cash, how peculiar it looked late in the game when Mancini, desperately attempting to revive the game, replaced Adebayor with defender Pablo Zabaleta.

Strength in depth? Not on the evidence of the bench on Saturday.

The next two weeks are absolutely crucial for Mancini, with qualification to the Europa League on Thursday a must for his job prospects, before league games against West Brom and Manchester United.

Mancini, however, was remaining defiant. He said: “For me, Chelsea will win the league.

If we understand why we lost this game, and we start to play like we did up until one week ago, then the season is very long, everything can change in football.

“We are now eight points behind Chelsea – that is frustrating and I am very frustrated because we beat them and one week ago we were only two points behind.

“Against Arsenal, we lost because we played with one player less. Today we lost because in the second half we played very bad.”

While Mancini’s position will only come under even more scrutiny, this result will have worked wonders for the ‘Stick with Mick’ campaign at Molineux.

Mick McCarthy has been criticised after a difficult start to the season but this was proof that nobody could do a better job at Wolves than the wily old operator.

Wolves could have been 3-0 down after 15 minutes but the visitors only had Adebayor’s penalty to show for their early dominance, after Richard Stearman had upended David Silva.

Nenad Milijas rewarded an excellent response with a fiercely struck equaliser before David Edwards beat Joe Hart from close range early in the second period.

This performance rendered Mancini’s superstars punch drunk and Edwards – a €775,000 signing from Luton – was one of many Wolves players to make the visitors look a bunch of champagne charlies.

He said: “I think the so-called lower teams are closing the gap on the big teams. I think we wanted it more than them. It wasn’t that City rolled over – we forced them to make mistakes.”