Manuel Pellegrini walks out on press twice after heavy defeat at Tottenham

Manuel Pellegrini appears to be feeling the pressure after twice storming out on journalists following Manchester City's third defeat in four matches.

An exceptional start to the season is beginning to be forgotten after home defeats to Juventus and West Ham were compounded in north London on Saturday.

Unable to follow-up their comfortable Capital One Cup win at Sunderland and hold onto a first-half lead, they returned from Tottenham on the back of a 4-1 defeat.

Pellegrini kept his counsel during the press conference, but his cool exterior dropped when the cameras were off and he spoke to the written press.

The City boss stormed off after less than 30 seconds having quickly grown unhappy with questions about his post-match emotions – before making an embarrassing retreat having walked the wrong way.

"If you want to talk about football, we talk about football, if not then no," he said.

"If you want to talk about football yes, but if you want to talk about stupid things then I do not answer stupid things."

Pellegrini would again storm off – this time through the right exit – after an innocuous question about Sergio Aguero's performance, although the City boss did answer a few questions before that.

The Chilean defended his center-backs after the heavy loss – "I think they both played very well" – and said that enforced changes rather than under-performing players were the main issue.

"It is difficult to keep a level when you must always make changes," he said. "That is difficult.

"We couldn't continue playing with the same team. We have an important squad and maybe we made important mistakes in the last games."

It was as open as Pellegrini got, bristling again when asked whether people had got carried away by City's early fine form.

"We never talked that we are invincible," he said.

"We know the Premier League is always close games and very difficult.

"Anyone can beat another team. We must continue working, we have 15 points, we try to get a victory in the next game."