City 2 Bolton 0

Match details
Tuesday 09 February 2010, 7:45PM

City of Manchester Stadium Att: 42016
Barclays Premier League

Referee:
Mike Jones
Teams
City:

Given, Zabaleta, Toure (Lescott 54), Kompany, Bridge (Wright-Phillips 68), Vieira, De Jong, Barry, A. Johnson (Sylvinho 84), Adebayor, Tevez

Unused subs:
Taylor, Petrov, Onuoha, Ireland

Bolton:

Jaaskelainen, Muamba, Knight, Steinsson, Ricketts, Cohen (M. Davies 74), Wilshere (M. Taylor 77, Robinson, Lee, K. Davies, Elmander

Unused subs:
Al Habsi, Samuel, Gardner, Basham, A. O’Brien

Bookings:
Muamba (62), Robinson (75)

A super display by six million pound signing Adam Johnson and a welcome ninety minutes for Patrick Viera were the stories of this encounter and both provided the assists that got City the three points.

Bolton simply had no answer to the pace, trickery and directness of the young England home debutante and City fans were treated to the uncovering of yet another wing wizard at the illustrious club.

A first half penalty from Carlos Tevez after Robinson had brought down Johnson and a sublime strike from Adebayor after a superb Viera pass ensured the Sky Blues could see out the final few minutes of the game.

Mancini started the game with a three man defensive midfield of De Jong, Barry and other home débutante in Patrick Viera much to the surprise of many watching the game.

City at home surely should be taking more of an attacking approach although Wright-Phillips' performance when he came on did little to suggest he is full of confidence at the moment.

Fair play to Bolton who kept knocking on the door but without Klasnic up front and Cahill at the back they are seriously lacking quality and goal scorers.

The win was enough to take City to fifth in the table on the same points with Liverpool but having played a game less.

A draw would be nice tomorrow although a Liverpool win wouldn't be the end of the world either.

Premier League

3 Arsenal 25 30 49
4 Liverpool 25 17 44
5 Man City 24 15 44
6 Tottenham 25 20 43
7 Aston Villa 24 13 41

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.