Sweet memories of those four opening victories, which had the more optimistic even talking of a title challenge, were forgotten as the Blues were thoroughly outplayed by David Moyes’ side.
Mancini still has a clutch of senior players to return from injury and knows that this below-par performance, against an in-form side who should be higher in the table, will be the exception.
City are being kept out of the top four only on goal difference by Tottenham, and this was still only the third defeat of the season in all competitions for the Carling Cup semi-finalists.
Nevertheless, it was an eye-opener for the new boss. But for Shay Given’s superb one-handed save from man-of-the-match Marouane Fellaini and Tim Cahill’s header coming back off the bar, it would have been worse.
The signs that this might be the day when Mancini’s celebrated lucky scarf finally got its stylish knot in a bit of a twist were ominously early.
Roque Santa Cruz, making only his third start since a summer move from Blackburn, was grimacing on the turf within five minutes of kick-off, and went off soon after with a recurrence of his calf injury.
His strike partner Carlos Tevez, who has been on fire these past weeks, looked less sharp than of late, while Martin Petrov developed a limp, a word that also described much of City’s efforts.
This was a long way from being the City that had swept aside Blackburn the previous Monday, and before they were able to make a re-evaluation at half time, the Blues were two goals down.
Even so, they held out until the 35th minute before conceding only the second goal of Mancini’s month-long reign, and could have reasonable grounds for a grumble at referee Marriner.
Pablo Zabaleta’s challenge on Louis Saha a couple of yards outside the penalty area appeared to involve minimal contact but the Argentine was penalised when the former Reds striker went down.
Fellaini stamped his authority as the outstanding player on the pitch, winning virtually every ball for which he competed and looking a threat whenever he ventured into Everton’s attack.
But it was another midfielder, South African Steven Pienaar, who broke the deadlock from the free kick as he curled his shot through a poor defensive wall and inside Given’s near post.
The Republic goalkeeper got a hand to the ball but couldn’t keep it out. He certainly had a case for questioning Nigel de Jong, who moved at the last moment to afford Pienaar a path to goal.
One-nil might have been manageable, but as the game drifted into time added on for the first half, Micah Richards gave away a penalty when he blatantly grabbed Saha’s shirt for several seconds.
It’s not an uncommon sight these days, and some defenders have been getting away with the ploy, but the linesman flagged and referee Marriner, who had a fair view of the incident, concurred.
Robinho, who had replaced Santa Cruz, led the protests but the decision stood and Saha capped the poorest 45 minutes under Mancini’s direction by sending Given the wrong way from the spot
City fans had little to cheer. Robinho had an early half-chance that fell to his weaker left foot and was steered wide of the target after Tevez headed on, and his evening got worse when he was replaced on the hour by Shaun Wright-Phillips.
It would be a cheap shot to say the brightest aspect of the Brazilian’s performance was his yellow boots, but Robinho had not lived up to Mancini’s hopes, the manager having urged him to replicate his home displays on hostile territory only hourse earlier.
Clearly, it was going to take a mighty effort in the second half to prevent Everton from pulling off the defeat that only Manchester United and Tottenham had managed to inflict previously.
City simply could not turn it around. Mancini says he won’t change his players’ eating habits, but he was left with plenty of food for thought himself in the gloom of Goodison Park.
