Mario Balotelli was involved in a heated exchange with his team-mate Yaya Touré during half-time of Manchester City's defeat at Swansea on Sunday.

The two players had an argument in the tunnel, according to BBC's Match of the Day, but the City manager, Roberto Mancini, later claimed he had no knowledge of the incident. "No, I don't know anything about this," Mancini insisted when asked.

At the time of the alleged argument the game was still scoreless, but City were being dominated by Swansea, who had missed a penalty.

Mancini had attempted to change the course of the game by replacing Gareth Barry with Sergio Agüero after 37 minutes. This brought a visibly angry reaction from the England midfielder who complained to first-team coach, David Platt, as he left the field.

Luke Moore's 83rd-minute winner for Swansea, coupled with Manchester United's victory over West Bromwich Albion, meant City fell from top spot in the league for the first time since October.

It was City's second defeat in four days, following the 1-0 Europa League loss to Sporting Lisbon on Thursday, and Mancini admitted his players might be feeling the strain of a long season.

"The last four days have been very difficult for me," he said. "Maybe we were tired at the start. This is normal after seven months of the season, as we are playing three times a week. We've lost two games in four days and this is a bad moment for us."