Manuel Pellegrini shrugged that he was “not worried about Chelsea” despite seeing his Manchester City team fall further behind the Premier League leaders at the end of a dispiriting week for both the Chilean and his champions.
Only another brilliant performance from Sergio Aguero, who scored twice to take his season`s league-leading tally to 12, enabled City to rescue a point in a pulsasting 2-2 draw at Queens Park Rangers on Saturday.
After the potentially calamitous midweek Champions League reverse at home to CSKA Moscow, which leaves them bottom of their group and staring at another early European elimination, the draw means City are now eight points adrift of Chelsea in third place as they seek to defend their domestic crown.
It was a result which only heaps more pressure on Pellegrini, who was on Saturday installed by one British bookmaker, William Hill, as a 5-6 odds on shot not be in charge at the Etihad at the end of the season.
Yet despite only an 83rd-minute equaliser from Aguero preventing a fourth defeat for City in their last five games, the ever-phlegmatic Pellegrini sounded unfazed by City`s current mishaps.
Asked if he was concerned about the growing gap behind Jose Mourinho`s pacesetters, he said: “I`m not worried about Chelsea. They are in a very good moment and we will see if they continue to the end of the year. We have a lot of games to play.
“I think we are in a very unlucky moment. We`re not playing very, very well but I think we had enough chances to win this game.”
He admitted, though, the forthcoming international break would be a welcome chance for him to reassess and for the side to regroup.
