Except it is not stupid to wonder how he would talk to his players after a game like this, which City led through Kevin De Bruyne before being blown away by goals from Eric Dier, Toby Alderweireld, Harry Kane and Erik Lamela.
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The defensive midfielder’s bullet from the edge of the box punished City, who failed to clear following Son Heung-min’s smothered shot – a goal the visitors were furious at as Walker was clearly offside before playing in the cross that started it.
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.
Question marks were raised about most of the Spurs goals, especially the first and third ones, but Pellegrini’s not blaming the officials with him admitting we played “very bad” and Spurs “very well” in the four-one defeat at White Hart Lane.
Tottenham take on Ligue 1 side Monaco on Thursday in the Europa League group stages and Mauricio Pochettino will hope the good form can continue to make it two from two in the competition.
“We are all very happy for Harry Kane“.
Despite maintaining throughout his dry spell that his lack of goals was not affecting his mindset, Kane did admit to being a “bit moody” prior to striking against City.
Speaking after the defeat, Pellegrini admitted he could be without all three for the Champions League game against Borussia Monchengladbach.
Yet, the City manager must be alarmed about their vulnerabilities without the sturdy presence of Vincent Kompany and Joe Hart.
“I think we have got over this thing about the bigger teams and we go into it with a different mentality now”, said Dier.
“Everyone was focused on what they had to do and we put in a real statement of a performance out there”.
“We have played Barcelona in the last two years and if we had played Barcelona at Villarreal or Malaga then maybe we wouldn’t have gone so far”, he told reporters.
“But we keep our feet on the ground”.
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Having appeared so dominant in their opening five league games, when they did not concede a goal, Pellegrini’s side suddenly appear vulnerable, casting doubt over their title credentials.
