We have a problem, admits Mancini

CONSIDERING he thought he had signed for Chelsea when he arrived at Eastlands 18 months ago, Robinho’s career with Manchester City always seemed destined for trouble.

Now, after a bright start to his time with the world’s wealthiest club, the Brazilian forward has scored three times in his last 33 appearances for the club – and not at all this season – with Saturday seeing his spell in English football reach its nadir.

Brought on as an eighth minute substitute for the oft-injured Roque Santa Cruz, Robinho lasted precisely 52 minutes before he himself was substituted for Shaun Wright-Phillips with manager Roberto Mancini desperate to try to breathe life into a team that was losing 2-0 and devoid of character.

The symbolism of a player – especially a senior one such as Robinho – being a “subbed sub” should not be under-estimated and former City manager Kevin Keegan had no doubt of the impact that such an act will have.

“It sends a message out and he was brave to do that,” said Keegan. “Robinho will get on the bus back to Manchester and think ‘I have no future here’.” That was certainly the perceived wisdom under Mancini’s predecessor Mark Hughes who did all he could to keep the €40m Brazilian out of his line-up towards the end of his ill-fated reign as manager.

Yet, with Italian Mancini in charge and with Robinho clearly a pet project of the club’s billionaire Arab owners, it was thought the change of manager might bring the best out of a player once ranked among the handful of the world’s elite.

Surely, the latest sad chapter in this ill-fated experiment, will end with City desperately trying to off-load Robinho this week, even if it is only on a loan basis? Surely, he has no future under the new manager, just as was the case under the old?

Not so, insisted Mancini. “I wasn’t worried about taking him off because I had to change the situation on the pitch,” he said. “I can’t worry about him. I can only worry about getting the result. It is not all about Robinho.’’

Mancini dodged the question of whether Robinho has a future under him at City, simply answering “yes” when asked whether the Brazilian has to “work hard during the week” to have any hope of remaining at Eastlands.

Of course, the evidence points to the fact that Robinho does not want to remain in east Manchester and that makes this week vital for player and manager, bearing in mind that, by this morning, less than two weeks remain in the transfer window.

Nor is Robinho’s status, and the long-reported interest in him from Barcelona, the only transfer issue at the club. Robinho only came on as substitute because Santa Cruz suffered the recurrence of a calf injury. With City experiencing wide-ranging injury problems, surely the club’s billionaire owners will hand Mancini some of their vast fortune to invest in strengthening his squad, assuming the Italian has a long-term future as manager, of course?

“Now we have a problem,” conceded Mancini while claiming he does not know whether he will spend. “Santa Cruz is injured, (Martin) Petrov too. And we don’t have the numbers in defence. We have some problems.”

The defeat, per se, will not have alarmed Mancini as much as its manner, even ignoring Ronaldo’s non-effort. After Steven Pienaar curled in a 36th minute free-kick, there looked likely to be only one winner and Saha’s penalty after Micah Richards had pulled him back was the least Everton deserved.

For Everton, meanwhile, after enduring an injury-ravaged start to the season, an impressive draw at Arsenal and this emphatic victory suggest their stock is definitely rising although the win was particularly meaningful for manager David Moyes who used his programme notes to launch an impassioned attack on City for their conduct in signing Joleon Lescott over the summer.

“There is no doubt that City treated us with little respect and broke rules in the summer,” said Moyes in the programme. “I found it very difficult to accept that a club that had until recently had so many similarities to Everton should suddenly start acting with no class.”

Added the Everton manager, when asked if victory meant that little bit more after the game: “I think you enjoy wins when you feel as if you’ve not been treated right so yes, I will enjoy this a little bit more. But that’s all gone now. I’ll move on.”

Moving on is precisely what Everton now look capable of doing in style. “A lot of people were starting to doubt us in the troubled times,” said forward Tim Cahill. “It was always going to be a matter of time to do what we have done, but to back it up after the performance at Arsenal is massive for the lads, especially the management.”

REFEREE: Andre Marriner 7 – The penalty should have been a free-kick as the foul started outside the area but when was the last time you saw a game without a single booking?

MATCH RATING: **** – The build-up, and the history between the clubs because of the Lescott transfer, added an element of bite and animosity which led to a keenly – but fairly – fought contest.