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• Manager begins to lose patience with absent striker
• Argentinian’s premature baby ‘no longer in danger’

Roberto Mancini, the Manchester City manager, last night expressed his ­growing frustration about Carlos Tevez’s self‑imposed absence from the team, abandoning the sympathy that he had ­previously shown towards the club’s leading scorer to suggest that he is running out of patience.

Mancini was speaking after City and Liverpool played out a dull 0‑0 draw that does little for either club’s ambitions to win a qualifying place for next season’s Champions League. The result sees City drop to fifth and Liverpool sixth as Spurs later overtook them to go into fourth spot with a 3-0 victory at Wigan.

Tevez has missed City’s last three games after flying to Buenos Aires ­following the premature birth of his second ­daughter, Katie. Mancini has not been able to speak