The fact that so many of the Premier League home sides made a dog’s dinner of their curtain raiser hardly helped settle any nerves and indeed this was a slow burner.
Then the Blues burst into life and scored three in 14 minutes. To continue the culinary theme (if paraphrasing Masterchef counts!) -football doesn’t get much better than this!
All the ingredients were there for a night of passion and intrigue on a rain slicked pitch that suited both sides’ passing games.
And though they proved lightweight in the final third it wasn’t until the 57th minute that Edin Dzeko finally broke the Swansea defiance led by keeper Michel Vorm.
It was the perfect entrée for record signing Sergio Aguero to come off the bench and score within eight minutes and then make one for man of the match Silva. He topped it off with a great fourth from long range.
This was Michelin starred performance from the Spaniard whose Latin link with Aguero already looks scrumptious.
Swansea their collective chests puffed out at making the big stage after decades treading the boards in the provinces came to show off their talent whilst the Blues – without top scorer Carlos Tevez – were determined to begin the season with a maximum points haul and show why they reside in the top three in the betting for the title.
In the end the gulf in class was reflected on the scoreboard
...Chris Bailey
Much of the pre-match chit-chat surrounded Roberto Mancini’s opening selection and most particularly how much of an Argentine attacking flavour it would contain.
Aguero, the club’s new record signing, was sat behind the manager when Dzeko kicked off a campaign filled with expectation.
The City chief plumped for Adam Johnson, David Silva and the Bosnian as his three-pronged strike force. That left Aguero and Mario Balotelli to discuss life as replacements.
Silva was the man who troubled the Swans most after a tepid opening Silva brought the game to life with a 23rd minute snap shot that was spectacularly tipped to safety by Vorm.
The Welsh team’s last line of defence isn’t the biggest keeper in the Premier League – or probably even at Swansea – but has mighty fine reflexes and spring and he displayed both all night.
Vorm won his first half battle with Yaya Toure and Dzeko denying them any number of times in a splendid first half display of obduracy and when he was beaten his bar came to the rescue rattled as it was by both Silva and Barry.
But the damn broke in the second half as first Vorm palmed Johnson’s cross into Dzeko’s path, Micah Richards crossed for Aguero to tap in and then the Argentine nodded back for Silva to get the goal his sublime efforts deserved. Aguero put the finishing touches to the second half rout from 25-yards in injury time.
That’s 17 games unbeaten at home now in all competitions and that - to round off the night’s theme - is a recipe for success!
