Life in charge of the world’s wealthiest football club was never going to be easy for Roberto Mancini. Ever since arriving at Eastlands last December, there has always been the sense that the Italian is a couple of bad results away from the chop. Well after City’s back-to-back defeats against Arsenal and Wolves these bad results have arrived.

I’m not saying that Mancini will be getting sacked on Monday morning, but with City eight points adrift of Chelsea after just ten games; you have to feel that Mancini desperately needs to see an immediate improvement in results.

But this won’t be easy. After a tricky trip to Poland to take on Lech Poznan in the Europa League, City face the tough task of a visit to the Hawthorns and an inform West Brom side. After that comes the biggest game of all as Manchester United make the trip across to Eastlands.

By all accounts that is three very tough games for Mancini to navigate, and if City were to have fallen further away from Chelsea at the end of the Manchester derby, you have to feel that Sheikh Mansour will call the end of the Italians tenure.

Mancini though claims he does not fear the sack, but did apologise to City fans for what he called the worst performance from his side this season. He said “I do not feel the pressure, I am not worried about that [the sack]. But of course we have to win these games, because we are a very good team.

“I am very sorry for the supporters. We played very well but only for the first 15 minutes. It was not good enough but I don’t know why. I must talk to the players and find out what happened because we shouldn’t play like that. I am very disappointed but I will find out why we played so badly.”

Mancini is obviously going to put on a brave face, but his interview after the Wolves defeat really did suggest that he is feeling the pressure. I have no doubt that with his squad he can turn it around, but whether he will get given the time to improve things on the pitch is another question. Patience is a thing that is desperately lacking in football, and Mancini needs to act quickly to save his job.

What do you think? Is Mancini heading for the City exit door?