A debut Boxing Day victory over Stoke City for the new Manchester City manager may have been somewhat regulation, but the true test of any team comes away from their own comfortable surroundings.
And Mancini took to his task at Molineux as you would expect a three-time winner of the Scudetto with Inter Milan would take to any challenge — even one as tough as managing Manchester City.
Mancini began the evening with a five-man midfield but decided it wasn’t working soon after the half hour — and, hey presto, they never looked back.
Carlos Tevez scored his seventh goal in as many games to put the immaculately turned-out Italian on his way to a second victory in two games and his new club to their first win on their travels since defeating Portsmouth in August.
Although victory over a newly promoted club is not sufficient to leave them performing cartwheels in Manchester, it’s a start Wolves are by no means an easy touch on their own patch and they worked devilishly hard.
But the fact is, had Craig Bellamy revelled in the front-running role that was perversely often denied him by Mark Hughes, this game would have been over within five minutes of the second-half starting.
As it was, Wolves kept at it. Kevin Doyle and Chris Iwelumo caused more than momentary panic in front of Shay Given before Javier Garrido settled the issue midway through the second-half.
The Spanish substitute, brought on for Stephen Ireland in the second half, benefited from Michael Mancienne’s clumsy barge into Gareth Barry as he curled a left-foot free-kick.
Tevez rounded off a comfortable victory three minutes from time with his second goal of the night, firing home left-footed from the edge of the penalty area as Wolves goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann was slow to react.
Mancini, as would be expected for a man who carries such lofty expectations on his shoulders, did not take long to act on the deficiencies at the City of Manchester Stadium just two days earlier.
Robinho was relegated to the substitutes’ bench with Micah Richards coming in for Sylvinho. Given what has happened in the past fortnight, the Wolves side sent out by Mick McCarthy was almost as much of a story.
There were five changes from the team who put up a decent fight for an hour at Liverpool before falling to defeat.
It was clear, though, once the sides lined up that Mancini was taking a more pragmatic approach to the problems that dogged former manager Mark Hughes away from Manchester.
The statistic that is routinely trotted out in the Welshman’s favour is that City lost just two League matches all season. But, for a team who cost so much to have won just once on their travels prior to last night’s final away fixture of the year was clearly not good enough.
With a treatment room containing Roque Santa Cruz and Emmanuel Adebayor, Mancini decided Tevez should be used as a lone striker, with Bellamy and Martin Petrov either side of him. It was a tactic that, for the opening quarter of an hour, looked ill conceived.
Former Wolves full back Kevin Muscat almost ended Bellamy’s career at Molineux before it had got under way over a decade ago during the Welshman’s early days at Norwich City.
So enraged was Norwich’s then boss, Bruce Rioch, that he had to be stopped from confronting the Australian on the pitch.
Football fans don’t forget and Muscat’s name rolled down the stands from the South Bank with the game but five minutes old.
It was however, in front of the goal protected by Given where the first excitement of the evening was produced. City’s Republic of Ireland goalkeeper needed to get his body behind Karl Henry’s grass-cutter as it headed for the bottom corner of the net.
Bellamy squandered a fantastic opportunity to silence the vast majority of the crowd on the half-hour. Petrov’s over-hit cross had to be collected by Tevez, whose fleet of foot bamboozled Wolves left back George Elokobi. The Argentine’s low cross bounced rather fortunately for Bellamy, but the striker blazed over from just five yards out.
The hoots of derision had barely died down when Bellamy fashioned Tevez’s 11th goal of the season after 33 minutes.
A neat step-over left Wolves defender Jody Craddock for dead and enabled Bellamy to pull the ball back. Tevez took the shot first-time, and it ricocheted off the diving Christophe Berra’s body and bounced past Hahnemann into the net.
Mancini decided his five-man midfield wasn’t working and Bellamy was pushed into a role just behind Tevez, with Petrov patrolling the left and Ireland pushed up on the right.
It looked a system better suited to the visitors and, apart from one Elokobi header that bounced over, saw out the half without too much trouble.
The game should have been all over three minutes after the interval as the ball was helped inside by Tevez and Petrov’s first-time touch had the in-form forward streaking clear. But his control was found wanting and the angle became too tight.
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