Roberto Mancini accepts Manchester City were far from their best in Saturday's 3-1 Premier League win over Wolves.
Italian happy after hard-fought home victory
Roberto Mancini accepts Manchester City were far from their best in Saturday's 3-1 Premier League win over Wolves.
The league leaders were heavy favourites to see off Mick McCarthy's side, but it proved to be a largely frustrating afternoon at The Etihad.
It took a mistake from Wayne Hennessey before City opened the scoring through Edin Dzeko with Aleksandar Kolarov then doubling their advantage.
However, it was a nervy finish for the home side as Wolves pulled a goal back through Stephen Hunt from the penalty spot after Vincent Kompany was shown a straight red card for bringing down Kevin Doyle.
The visitors were pressing for a leveller, but City made sure of the points in injury time courtesy of an exquisite finish from Adam Johnson from 30 yards out.
City had romped home against Manchester United last Sunday with a 6-1 success before crushing Wolves 5-2 in the Carling Cup in midweek.
Mancini accepts not every game is going to be a walk in the park and he credits the visitors for making things difficult for his star-studded troops.
Impossible
"It's impossible to always score four, five or six goals. But today we had I don't know how many chances in the first half but their keeper saved everything," remarked Mancini.
"In the second half we played very well. It was important to beat Wolves today.
"After Manchester United, I don't want us to think every game will be easy. In football, it doesn't exist. It is impossible. In every moment, every game can change."
Quiet
Mancini refused to talk about referee Stuart Attwell's performance with the official upsetting the home faithful throughout the Wolves clash.
"I don't want to speak about that," he added. "Always good referee."
City left Mario Balotelli on the bench with Dzeko starting and Mancini confirmed in the post-match conference that he had no fresh injury concerns for next week's UEFA Champions League clash with Villarreal.
"We don't have any problems. I can't play with three strikers. Sergio needs to play after injury and Dzeko played very well on Wednesday."
