Blues boss Mancini purred with delight as an inspired midfield effort from Gareth Barry, Nigel de Jong and Yaya Toure fuelled victory to mark the club owner’s first appearance at City of Manchester Stadium.
New boy James Milner sparkled too with a memorable debut after his arrival from Aston Villa, and Mancini said: “I wasn’t surprised, because I thought we could play a good game tonight.
“If we go out on the pitch with a good mentality then we can beat any team. It’s hard to score three goals against a team like Liverpool. We needed this win to believe in ourselves.”
Asked if it was a timely performance in front of the new owner, Roberto smiled: “Yes, I’m sure of this. He was very happy because it was his first time and he saw us beat Liverpool. So it was a good night.
We spoke afterwards and he spoke with Carlos as captain. But I didn’t speak to him before the game, I didn’t even know that he was coming!
“I hope he will come every week but I don’t think that is possible. We don’t have time to celebrate and I’m very tired tonight! We must prepare for the next game now in only two days.”
Mancini, who hopes to have injured Mario Balotelli back at Sunderland, added: “I’m happy with all the players. Tonight there were six English players, which is important. We need an English mentality.
“James Milner is English and knows the Premier League well. He has a good attitude and everything he needs to do the job. He’s strong with a good technique, a fantastic player.”
Carlos Tevez, who wrapped up victory from the spot after Gareth Barry opened the scoring, is claiming the second goal also after he stretched for a touch to Micah Richards’ towering header from a corner.
But Richards grinned: “It’s my goal - he’s going to get 20 this season and he got the penalty, so I’m claiming it. I’ll be ringing the dubious goals panel in the morning!”
