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Victory at home to Sunderland may not have been enough to keep Mark Hughes in a job at Manchester City, but the omens are altogether more positive for his successor.
If the pressure of Champions League qualification is getting to Roberto Mancini and his players, they showed no sign of it on Sunday.
This was a quite magnificent performance from Mancini's side in front of chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak - bringing five goals from five different players and City's biggest Barclays Premier League victory since a five-goal margin against Burnley on the same date last year.
5-0: Yaya Toure celebrates completing the rout
The Italian will be hoping that is the only similarity to last season's run-in and that his team are not edged out of the top four again.
On a weekend when Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham all dropped two points, City moved impressively into third place and look increasingly likely to meet the first target set by their ambitious owners. The last time Khaldoon and chief executive Garry Cook saw Steve Bruce's side beaten here, they summoned Hughes upstairs to confirm the poorly-kept secret that he was being sacked.
Yesterday, they headed down to the dressing room to congratulate Mancini and his players on a job very well done. Even Mario Balotelli managed a smile and that's saying something.
Mancini then spoke like a man who was looking up at Arsenal in second place rather than over his shoulder at fourth.
'We don't have pressure,' said the City boss. 'The target was Champions League and we will be OK as long as we play like this. 'It was important for us to win. We went into third position, we are three points off Arsenal and Chelsea are behind us.'
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Some of City's attacking play was exquisite and that will certainly have given the watching Sir Alex Ferguson food for thought ahead of the FA Cup semi-final a week on Saturday.
At one stage early in the second half yesterday, the ball was hoofed out of the Sunderland defence and soared towards the exact spot on the touchline where Mancini was standing. At first he almost appeared not to notice and then, with one nonchalant motion of his right shoe, he killed it stone dead.
It summed up City's performance in an instant. Pure class. No fuss. They were two goals up inside the opening quarter-of-an-hour against a ragged Sunderland side.
Adam Johnson, making his first League start since January, was first on the scoresheet after nine minutes as the England winger exchanged passes with Yaya Toure in a lovely move before drilling a shot past Simon Mignolet from close range.
'We go our backsides kicked': Steve Bruce (left) had no excuses as Roberto Mancini waxed lyrical
Carlos Tevez doubled the lead shortly afterwards, ending a seven-game barren run - his longest in a City shirt - with his first League goal for two months. The Argentine brought down David Silva's pass with a fine first touch and went down in the penalty box under a challenge from Phil Bardsley.
Mignolet just failed to keep outTevez's low penalty as it crept in off the inside of his left-hand postbut, surprisignly, he was not beaten again until the 63rd minute.
AgainTevez sprang Sunderland's offside trap, racing on to Nigel de Jong'sflighted ball. He found Balotelli, whose first-time shot was blocked byMichael Turner and Silva reacted quicker than three Sunderlanddefenders to claim the goal his performance deserved.
SubstitutePatrick Vieira got the fourth moments after coming on as City took acorner in the 67th minute, sticking out a leg to divert the ballgoalwards when Aleksandar Kolarov drilled it back in. At first,Mignolet appeared to have made an outstanding save but Howard Webb'sassistant spotted that he had in fact clawed away Vieira's effort fromwell behind the line.
Lee Cattermole gifted City a fifth. He played a suicidal pass across the edge of the box and Yaya Toure was onto it in a flash.
'Itwas brutal for us,' said Sunderland manager Steve Bruce, whose teamhave now lost six of their last seven games, failing to score for thelast seven hours and 19 minutes. 'We got our backsides kicked.'
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Source: Daily Mail
Source: Daily Mail