EMMANUEL Adebayor and Stephen Ireland struck to give City an opening day win at Blackburn.

With the Premier League spotlight on City, Mark Hughes' new look Blues delivered victory at the first time of asking.

Adebayor scored after just three minutes and Ireland scored late on to seal the win.

In between, City were forced to survive periods of intense Rovers pressure. But with Kolo Toure in fine form and Shay Given making excellent saves to deny Chris Samba and Jason Roberts, City were able to celebrate their success with gusto.

Hughes only named three of his six summer signings in his starting line-up, although two more were on the bench - including Carlos Tevez - for the start of a campaign that has been eagerly awaited for so long by so many.

City's travelling Blues army did not have to wait long for the first glimpse of what their side are now capable of.

The opening goal - superbly finished from just inside the box - had come on the counter-attack following a Blackburn corner and it soon became evident the home side were going to enjoy a long period of dominance.

Striking duo Roberts and Benni McCarthy proved difficult to subdue, as did El Hadji-Diouf and Morten Gamst Pedersen in wider positions.

Toure

However, for all the attackers Hughes has brought in this summer and the continuing fall-out from his pursuit of Joleon Lescott, the Welshman has reinforced his defence as well.

Gareth Barry is a very useful screening player in midfield while Toure is a central defensive rock, who always keeps his head without ever looking like enduring one of those momentary lapses his partner Richard Dunne suffers so frequently.

And behind Toure was Given, a relative veteran having arrived from Newcastle last January at the cost of £6million to force Joe Hart to pursue his England ambitions with Birmingham.

Of course, winning when you are not playing well is a mantra of all top clubs, so Hughes had no apologies to make on his return to Ewood Park.

In fact, City were marginally the better side when the teams returned, with Adebayor looking far more lively than he had done in his last few performances with Arsenal.

Not that Rovers were throwing in the towel. Roberts brought another excellent save from Given with a stooping header.

That attack triggered a response of sorts from City, who went agonisingly close through Robinho.

It was the Brazilian’s only meaningful contribution and not long after he had been denied by Paul Robinson’s full-length save, his number 10 was flashed up on the board as Tevez waited to be introduced.

As usual, Tevez’s industry caught the eye.

Robinson denied him a debut goal before Ireland, collecting Wright-Phillips’ crossfield pass, calmly took his time before beating Robinson at his near post.

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