Mancini sees win as turning point

City suffered a disappointing January, losing twice in the league and being knocked out of both cup competitions, but with a tough run of fixtures over, and the Toure brothers due back from the African Nations Cup soon, Mancini is looking forward with more confidence.

"It was an important win for the team," said Mancini. "Maybe after tonight something can change because January was a difficult month.

"Now maybe we can go in a good way."

Sergio Aguero got City started from the penalty spot before setting up Edin Dzeko for the third, either side of an own goal from Chris Baird.

Manager Arsene Wenger played down the scale of Arsenal's victory after it romped to a 7-1 thrashing of 10-man Blackburn Rovers.

Robin van Persie hit a hat-trick while Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain scored twice, with Mikel Arteta and Thierry Henry also on the team sheet.

Morten Gamst Pedersen had cancelled out Van Persie's opener for Blackburn but the visitors fell apart after Gael Givet's first-half red card.

"I do not give much importance to the seven goals, it is just we won and played well,'' said Wenger.

"I felt that recently we had quite good performances but did not get the results.

"Today we got the performance and the result, which is ideally what you want."

Red cards proved to be turning points in defeat for both Queens Park Rangers and Stoke City.

QPR was up 1-0 at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers thanks to a debut goal from Bobby Zamora when fellow new striker Djibril Cisse was sent off 34 minutes in for retaliation.

Wolves turned it around with goals from Matt Jarvis and Kevin Doyle, to the frustration of Mark Hughes.

"I was really pleased with what we were producing," the Hoops manager said.

"If we had 11 v 11 I feel very confident in saying we would have won the game quite comfortably."

While Hughes made no apology for Cisse, Tony Pulis was left fuming by the decision to send off Robert Huth in Stoke's 1-0 home defeat to Sunderland, settled by a strike from James McClean.

Huth was shown a straight red card in the 45th minute despite clearly pulling out of a challenge on David Meyler.

"I have watched it twice now," Pulis said. "Robert has committed himself and then pulled out of the challenge, and he hasn't touched the kid at all."

Swansea City manager Brendan Rodgers hailed loan signing Gylfi Sigurdsson after the midfielder cancelled out a Marc-Antoine Fortune's opener and then teed up Danny Graham for the winner in the Swans' 2-1 victory at West Bromwich Albion.

"He is one I've always kept in contact with and I just felt this would be a terrific club and he has fitted in perfectly," Rodgers said of his former Reading charge.

Wigan Athletic boss Roberto Martinez accepted his luck in a 1-1 draw with Everton as a Tim Howard howler put the Latics ahead before Victor Anichebe's equaliser.

"It was a welcome surprise," Martinez said of the goal. "In the second half we had that little bit of luck. We haven't had much luck this season."

Norwich City recorded a 2-0 win over Bolton Wanderers with goals from Andrew Surman and Anthony Pilkington to leave manager Paul Lambert purring.

"In my time, which is nearly three seasons now, that's as good as it's been because of the circumstances and the desire they showed," he said.