Déjà Blue for faithful as City snatch late win

It was as if the last three eventful sporting months — an Olympic Games for the ages, a European Championships for England and Ireland to forget — had never happened.

Ninety-eight days after Roberto Mancini’s Manchester City were crowned champions of England via a come-from-behind, heart-testing 3-2 victory over a QPR team fancied to go down, here they were back at the Etihad, struggling again to kill off supposedly inferior opposition before prevailing by the same scoreline.

In May, it was Sergio Aguero who scored the title-winning third goal for City — this time, Samir Nasri — but, to spoil the champions’ post-match celebrations, Aguero’s role this time was limited to the opening seven minutes before he twisted his knee awkwardly in a fair challenge from Nathaniel Clyne.