City 2 - 1 Newcastle

• It can't always be like last Saturday. This was a woeful performance; hangover-sluggish, stinking of 'will this do?'. But, thanks to the crucial interventions of Martin Atkinson and Adam Johnson, we managed to escape with three points. This is what the top teams do, I suppose. The 'Big Four' are no strangers to the unconvincing, referee-abetted home win. But at no stage was this enjoyable; there was a thread of embarassment, starting with Nigel de Jong's breaking Hatem ben Arfa's leg and continuing through two errant penalty decisions, both in our favour.

• But the main reason I'm frustrated isn't just that this was a flat, pedestrian performance, but that the causes of this were obvious and avoidable. Roberto Mancini went for the same line up (full-backs aside), that beat Chelsea. A central midfield of de Jong, Gareth Barry and Yaya Touré is perfect for containing the champions but in games like this it's limited. There was too much creative burden on James Milner and David Silva; whereas with Adam Johnson starting as well we would have been more varied and better balanced.

• Brian Kidd said after the game that Mancini deserves credit for bringing Johnson on when he did. True enough. But the right decision, surely, would have been to play him from the start? Despite our lack of tempo in midfield we managed to create first half opportunities thanks to Newcastle's high line. With Johnson in the side we might have not needed a gift from Martin Atkinson to go ahead; he awarded a penalty for a tackle that probably took the ball and was certainly outside the box. I don't know which decision was worse, that one, or the failure to punish Joleon Lescott for chopping Shola Ameobi in the box. Either way, we were the beneficiaries of some generous charity from the officials.

• We did look livelier with Johnson and Adebayor on, it must be said. Johnson's goal was thrilling, going inside Joey Barton, outside José Enrique and firing into the far bottom corner. I don't think my comparisons with Arjen Robben are entirely facetious. Adebayor, of whom I am not the biggest fan, looked lively and determined, causing problems across the front line. When might just have poached something on the break when 2-1 ahead, too, as David Silva drifted into the spaces Newcastle vacated.

• So it was ugly, lucky, and not much fun. But there's an international break coming and there's no better way to go into one than with a win. Blackpool away isn't for fourteen days, and no-one's going to be talking about Martin Atkinson by the time that rolls around. Grinding out wins is so at odds with the traditional culture of Manchester City that I still don't quite know how to react to it. But if Roberto Mancini is hoping to cultivate a winning mentality at City then there's no better way to do it than results like this.