City produced another thumping victory despite Roberto Mancini playing a completely different starting eleven to those who began at Old Trafford. Wolves made nine changes themselves from the weekend and it will be interesting to see who starts on Saturday.
With a Champions League game in Spain next week, Mancini may well turn to some of these players for the weekend. There are plenty to choose from with the side combining youth and experience, and all showing commendable commitment.
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Pantilimon – Did better with crosses than against Birmingham in the last round. Here the concern was how shots tended to come back off him into open play. 6
Zabaleta – Against Hunt we needed someone who was going to remain committed and focussed throughout. Pablo was the man. 7
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Amidst all the jubilation after Sunday and todays papers being full of Tevez once again, it’s easy to forget that City have a Carling Cup game tonight. Fortunately Roberto Mancini isn’t one to be distracted from the job in hand.
It’s a real shame that Owen Hargreaves has picked up a calf strain as it would have been great to see him feature both tonight and on Saturday. Maybe Mancini will now give de Jong a run out to improve his match sharpness.
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“Why always me?” Why not when it’s this good. Mario Balotelli opened up an initially subdued derby with a controlled stroke of the ball, raised his shirt and set City on course for an even greater victory than the 5-1 of 1989.
Mario’s next significant act was to accelerate past Johnny Evans, who foolishly got himself sent off for trying to pull back the Italian. That moment opened up space in the United half and David Silva needed no further invitation to take the game to another level.
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