Manchester City 3 - 0 Blackburn Rovers - Match Report

Manchester City extended their lead at the top of the Premier League to five points after a convincing 3-0 win over Blackburn Rovers at the Etihad Stadium. Goals from Mario Balotelli, Sergio Aguero and Edin Dzeko secured the three points though it should really have been an even bigger scoreline. Once the first goal went in it was really a question of how many, and Steve Kean will perhaps be satisfied with a mere three goal deficit. There were three good bits of news for Manchester City prior to the game. Firstly, a win would put them five points clear at the top of the table, secondly Yaya Toure started for the first time since departing to the African Cup of Nations, and thirdly, Mario Balotelli was back in the team, which was really good news for everyone apart from Blackburn Rovers fans. As for the apparently imminent return of Carlos Tevez... I€™m not sure whether that€™s good news or not. I didn€™t see the supposed apology to Roberto Mancini, but I did see Tevez complain about being treated as a dog (and a very well paid dog at that) so I€™m wondering how convincing his apology was. Even a win at the Etihad Stadium today was unlikely to completely to quell the shouts of €˜Kean out€™ from Rovers fans, it was hardly going to hurt though. Christopher Samba is gone. Choosing to desert the Premier League for the higher standard of football in the Russian Premier League, and Anzhi Makhachkala, home of Samuel Eto€™o, and a load of mediocre players they haven€™t managed to replace yet. No money involved I€™m sure. Anyway, though Samba is undoubtedly a quality player, perhaps it€™s better Steve Kean has a group of players who actually want to be there. There€™s no doubt Rovers have quality (not just in the form of Junior Hoilett) and they€™ve also recruited Marcos Olsson, who is the twin brother of Martin Olsson, both of whom play on the left wing for Rovers. So I apologise if I got the two confused at any point €“ it would have been nice if one took one for the team and sported a wacky hairstyle. No such luck though unfortunately... Pablo Zabaleta was the only Argentinean back in the squad €“ he started in right back. Aleksander Kolarov returned on the left, and as mentioned before Yaya Toure started in the heart of midfield, with Mario Balotelli leading the line and Sergio Aguero buzzing somewhere around him. Blackburn started with a defensive 4-1-4-1 with Radoslav Petrovic and Yakubu the respective €˜1€™s. The Olsson brothers look frighteningly similar. Luckily one had €˜M. Olsson€™ on the back of his shirt... I€™m pretty sure it was Marcos. Mario Balotelli almost drew first blood in the first minute. A smooth flowing move from the hosts included some good play between Sergio Aguero and Adam Johnson, and culminated with the latter pulling it back to the volatile Italian, whose well struck shot was denied by a fantastic save from Paul Robinson, he got down with amazing speed. 81% of possession for Manchester City in the opening 15 minutes, but apart from the aforementioned Balotelli effort City hadn€™t really created all that much. David Silva was looking sharp as always, Sergio Aguero €“ atypically sloppy. Paul Robinson pulled off a bit of a camera save to deny Mario Balotelli again. The striker€™s well struck free kick bent round the wall from the corner of the 18 yard box, but it was ultimately a pretty standard stop for the Blackburn €˜keeper. Not a particularly interesting opening twenty five minutes. Rovers were very much parking the bus, though if it was that easy to keep City out the Etihad would be a multi-storey car park of double decker buses. However the Sky Blues were looking likely and it was unsurprisingly Mario Balotelli who scored the opening goal in the 30th minute. Hoilett gave away possession cheaply and David Silva took over, releasing Aleksander Kolarov whose pinpoint cut back was slotted home by Balotelli. He lifted his shirt to reveal a message, everyone leaned forward, we knew what this meant... Raffaela I love you... Great. Good for him anyway. The Olsson partnership wasn€™t working as well as Steve Kean would have liked. No twin-like telepathy at all €“ terrible. Mauro Formica was arguably the biggest creative presence in the visitors€™ squad but he didn€™t have much around him. It€™s not as though Rovers were under the impression they were going to go to Manchester and play City off the park anyway. Paul Robinson made a ridiculously good save to prevent a lovely flicked effort from Vincent Kompany. Insane reactions. It came back out to Yaya Toure, around two yards out, he missed! It was essentially an open goal. It did come at him very quickly though. Sergio Aguero showed great persistence to almost put City two up. He fought off the challenge of Scott Dann before showing strength to hold off Bradley Orr, but his shot, poked in from a very title angle, cleared the post by a matter of inches. That was it for the first half, and Blackburn were lucky to be just one goal behind. Even so the lead was looking far more likely to incease, rather than be cancelled out. City had had 12 shots on goal, Blackburn hadn€™t managed one, and had only had 17% of possession. HALF TIME Paul Robinson, who had hitherto kept the visitors in the game, gifted Sergio Aguero with a goal in the 52nd minute. From a corner again, the ball should have been comfortably claimed by the Rovers €˜keeper€™, but instead he palmed it straight to the City striker who lashed it home to cover up what had actually been a pretty quiet performance by his standards. Yaya Toure went down around the hour mark with what looked like it could be a lower back injury. Sergio Aguero also looked to be struggling after a minor knock with Morten Gamst Pederson, but both were luckily able to continue. Or unluckily for Rovers€™ fans. Not that the City bench is lacking in quality anyway. It should have been three minutes later. David Silva danced around in the Blackburn area before blasting it at Aguero€™s head. It bounced back to Zabaleta, but Aguero was unable to convert his cross-come-shot. You could almost forgive Steve Kean for simply writing this one off and attempting to concede as few goals as possible... And that€™s exactly what he appeared to be doing €“ appearing to watch the game with all the interest of an Englishman watching a SPL game that wasn€™t the Old Firm Derby. He finally snapped into action 20 minutes from the end, replacing Radoslav Petrovic with Steven Nzonzi (which is how he should have started the game anyway) and Mauro Formica with Ruben Rochina. Edin Dzeko didn€™t take long to get on the scoresheet. Around a minute after being introduced in place of Balotelli, he leapt to connect with Kolarov€™s fantastic cross to power it beyond Paul Robinson, and put any conceivable doubt as to the outcome of the game to bed. The Yaya Toure injury concerns re-emerged as he required attention and was ultimately replaced by James Milner. Didn€™t look to be in a great deal of pain though. A save to make for Joe Hart! The first I believe in the 92nd minute - Yakubu attempted to bend it round him from around 20 yards out. A fairly easy save all in all, on his 150th appearance. This one had been over for a while. Blackburn return home with their tails firmly between their legs. A frightening display by the home side €“ they didn€™t give their opponents a sniff and even the Sky Blues€™ fans must have been getting slightly bored by the end of it. City remain top, Rovers remain in the bottom three. Referee: Mick Jones Manchester City (4-4-1-1): Hart, Zabaleta, Kompany, Lescott, Kolarov, Johnson (Pizzaro, 71), De Jong, Yaya Toure (Milner, 86), Silva, Aguero, Balotelli (Dzeko, 79) Blackburn Rovers (4-1-4-1): Robinson, Orr, Hanley, Dann, Martin Olsson, Petrovic (Nzonzi, 70), Hoilett, Pedersen, Formica (Rochina, 70), Marcos Olsson, Yakubu