Robinho dilemma set to haunt Mancini

A NEW era for Manchester City began, at the City of Manchester Stadium, in much the same way as the old one had ended with uncertainty and frustration surrounding the future of the club’s mercurial Brazilian Robinho.

With Roberto Mancini at the helm for the first time since his controversial appointment to replace Mark Hughes, sacked and forced into the demeaning act of seeing that dismissal played out in public during the victory against Sunderland seven days earlier, City coasted to a 2-0 win.

Goals from Martin Petrov and Carlos Tevez in the first half guaranteed the victory before the first-half whistle sounded but it was the performance – perhaps “non-performance” would be a more accurate phrase – of Robinho that dominated post-match analysis.