Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini: 'I'm not under pressure to win a title every year'

Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini says he is under no pressure from the club's owners despite a recent slump that threatens to leave them without a trophy this season.

The Premier League champions are struggling to keep pace with leaders Chelsea and face an uphill battle to stay in the Champions League after the chastening 2-1 home defeat by Barcelona in the last 16 first leg.

Having lost in the FA Cup to second-tier club Middlesbrough, Pellegrini's hopes of backing up last season's title and League Cup with more trophies look slim, leading to inevitable speculation about his job.

Asked at a news conference on 3 March if he was concerned, the Chilean said: "No. I never have any pressure to win an amount of titles and to win a title every year if I want to continue here. I don't feel any pressure, especially about the media. I feel only pressure when I don't see my team playing the way I like to do it, is the only pressure for me.

"All the other things, for me I don't have, I repeat, not, never when I sign a contract, never told me that I must win a title every year; that I must win five titles in five years."

City go into the home match against bottom club Leicester City on 4 March five points adrift of Chelsea, who also have a game in hand. Third-placed Arsenal are only four points behind Pellegrini's side.

The 2-1 defeat by Liverpool on 1 March was a hammer blow for City and left them five points worse off than they were after 27 games of last season, when they surged through to take the title for the second time in three seasons. However, Pellegrini is not concerned.

He said: "No, the concern is to win the next 11 games. I think it's important to have our mind, trust in what we do because I think it's the same team that won last year both cups, the Capital One and Premier League; also the team that scored, I don't remember exactly but around 160 goals, the most amount of goals ever here.

"I think that this year we are continued second in the table, just two or three points less than last year. We continue in the Champions League, we will see what happens in the second leg.

"So I don't think it's important to think about what happened in the past. I think it's important to try to win tomorrow and think what will happen in the future, to improve, to be a consistent team during 90 minutes and not have those bad moments during the games."