ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE: Manchester City 2 Stoke City 0:THEY WERE strikers and they were going in different directions. As Craig Bellamy prepared to come on, a stadium which seemed to have forgotten Mark Hughes with remarkable speed rose to applaud the player who had been most affected by his sacking.

He was replacing Robinho and the Brazilian, thinking the ovation was for him, began to smile. There are, however, few places outside a party conference where displays of such mediocrity - a miscue that unwittingly set up Martin Petrov's opener and a flurry of dreadful corners - has the faithful leaping to their feet.

Roberto Mancini, his first match as Manchester City's 11th manager of the Premier League era safely negotiated, recognised that both men, for different reasons, required careful handling.

In front of the City chairman, Khaldoon al-Mubarak, whose organisation, Abu Dhabi United, had paid €36 million for the Brazilian, it was probably wise for Mancini to play Robinho, whom Hughes had dropped for his surreal final game in charge.

Mancini did not survive four years at Internazionale under Massimo Moratti without learning the art of politics.

"Stoke are a big, physical side and this is not the game that Robinho would have preferred," he said. "But he can improve. It is important that he stays because he can earn himself a place in the history of this club."

Mancini's statement that "Bellamy is my friend" and his suggestion he would start at Wolverhampton this evening might soothe things in that area for now. But Bellamy's relationships with his numerous managers have been on the Burton-Taylor scale of volatility and he has already changed clubs seven times.

The Italian also went out of his way to praise Shay Given, another dismayed by the regime change at Eastlands, saying "he is one of the best five goalkeepers in the world".

Given is a more stable character than Bellamy. At Newcastle both endured the sacking of Bobby Robson, which was more vicious and unpopular than anything engineered by Khaldoon and his chief executive, Garry Cook, last week. Bellamy fell out with Robson's successor, Graeme Souness and moved on loan to Celtic. The Irishman stuck it out for another four years.

But for two remarkable reaction saves, first from Tuncay Sanli and then from James Beattie in the second half, Stoke might have become the latest side whose name would scarcely register in Abu Dhabi to have forced a draw against the richest club in the world. As it was, Carlos Tevez scored City's second before half-time.

Nevertheless, this was the first clean sheet Manchester City had kept at Eastlands since Wolves were beaten 1-0 on August 22nd.

Kolo Toure, placed in an unfamiliar partnership with Vincent Kompany, showed the pace and desire that seemed to have eluded him in the last few frantic weeks. Toure will play the return at Molineux before leaving for the African Cup of Nations, while Emmanuel Adebayor will have a medical to determine whether he is fit enough to travel to the tournament in Angola.

Not everyone in the home dressingroom was dismayed to see Hughes leave, especially Petrov, signed by Sven-Goran Eriksson and who had scored in his previous three starts, against West Ham, Wigan and Fulham.

The last of those was in October and Hughes never picked him again.

"Every time I scored, I went to the bench," he said. "Now is not the time to speak about my situation. In the past six months too many things have happened to me but what Mark Hughes did to me was unfair.

"We will get better. We were a little bit nervous because everyone wanted to show the manager what we could do.

"Everyone was surprised at the quick change of manager but we are football players who have to earn our money."

- Guardian Service