Premier League: Blackburn 0 Manchester City 4

Manchester City ended a turbulent week with a 4-0 win over Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park.

Second-half goals from Adam Johnson, Mario Balotelli, Samir Nasri and Stefan Savic secured all three points for Roberto Mancini’s men, who bounced back from their loss to Bayern Munich in impressive fashion.

The first half was one of frustration for Mancini and his side, with Blackburn’s resilience at the back a mere sidenote to the suspected groin injury picked up by Sergio Aguero, with the striker limping down the tunnel after 25 minutes to make it a terrible week for the club’s Argentine forwards.

Mario Balotelli had the first chance after 10 minutes blasting over from 10 yards over, having been played in brilliantly by midfield catalyst David Silva.

Chances were proving few and far between but the Spaniard was the coolest man on the pitch, playing in Yaya Toure only for the Ivorian to waste his chance.

But as the visitors looked to turn the screw, one came loose, with Aguero forced off with a suspected groin injury to be replaced by Samir Nasri.

It affected Mancini’s men, with Balotelli’s curling effort from 25 yards out flying wide, and as half time arrived, there had been plenty of possession but little penetration from the Etihad Stadium outfit.

The visitors clearly felt like they had something to prove and arrived for the second 45 minutes in dynamic fashion, with Silva and Nasri linking up superbly on the left before the Spaniard hammered in a dangerous shot.

It was only the start and minutes later, Balotelli cut in from the left to sweep a fine right-footed effort on to Robinson’s far post. Blackburn were holding on.

But not for long and it was a strike that even Rovers’ brave resistance could do nothing about, as Johnson latched on to Aleksander Kolarov’s cleared corner before hitting an unstoppable left-footed strike into the former England ‘keeper’s top corner.

It took only two more minutes for the game to be put to bed by Balotelli, after some excellent work from Nasri down the left played in the Italian, and the youngster got in front of former Birmingham defender Scott Dann to knock home at the near post.

Blackburn’s response held little threat and despite hard work from Junior Hoilett down the left, a third seemed inevitable and it was to come through Nasri, who had been superb off the bench.

With Silva having embarrassed the hosts’ defence, the Spain international simply laid it on a plate for the 24 million pounds man to hit an effort off Lowe and past Robinson – memories of Munich were disappearing for Mancini.

Such comforts weren’t forthcoming for Kean, who faced deafening boos and calls to resign from the home fans as substitute Savic wrapped it up late on to add further gloss to a second-half performance befitting true title contenders.

The final whistle came shortly after and City’s doubters had been roundly silenced. This time, there were only smiles on Mancini’s bench.