MARK Hughes had better order in a job-lot of aspirin, because he is heading for the mother of all selection headaches.

Chief migraine merchant last night was Martin Petrov, stepping in for his first start of the season and blasting out a turbo-charged display.

The Bulgarian, disgruntled at getting just 42 minutes of football from the bench this season, made one, scored one and gave his boss a sharp reminder that there is another top gun in town outside of the summer signings and Craig Bellamy.

And to think that on deadline day, Petrov appeared to be angling for a move to Spurs, unhappy at being the fall guy for the arrival of mega-bucks Emmanuel Adebayor, Carlos Tevez and Roque Santa Cruz.

He had a good pre-season, scoring goals for fun, including the coolly-taken winner against Barcelona in the Nou Camp.

But while on international duty, the Bulgarian press claimed he had said wanted away from City, although Hughes – after speaking to the player – declared that his words had lost something in translation.

With Stevie Ireland suffering from a stomach bug, Petrov got his chance, and the only language Hughes wanted to hear him speak was that of football. He got it, fluently.

His jet-heeled wing play and his delightful curling free kick to re-take the lead in the first half make it very difficult for Hughes to leave him out when the Blues head for Aston Villa next Monday night.

Then again, the question of who does get left out, and who gets in, is quite a dilemma.

Chances

With Adebayor straining at the leash after completing his three-match ban last night, and Santa Cruz and Michael Johnson finally making appearances  from the subs’ bench, the permutations are almost endless.

And that is without taking into account the considerable claims of Robinho and Vincent Kompany, both rapidly getting back towards fitness.

Those Blues not in the team must have had that curious mixture of elation and apprehension for their own chances as City turned on the style in the first half.

Carlos Tevez,  a top-class forward but never a great goalscorer, might have had a hat-trick in the opening 15 minutes.

No visiting team has kept a clean sheet at Eastlands in 2009, and it took just five minutes for Tevez to maintain that record.

Gareth Barry’s clever little header  freed Petrov on the left and he calmly weighed up his options before accurately picking out Tevez for an easy side-footed goal.

He then swivelled to fire inches wide of the upright after more scintillating stuff from City, and blazed another high over the bar when Wayne Bridge’s cross found its way to him.

It was stirring stuff from the Blues, but the Hammers equalised from their first real attack.

City were at sixes and sevens from a free kick pumped into their box, the ball fell to Radoslav Kovac and his mis-hit shot was turned in by the unmarked Carlton Cole.

Credit

For a few minutes City looked to have been shaken out of their confident stride, but it was Petrov who restored the rhythm.

He sized up a free kick 25 yards out and bent a beauty around the wall and beyond the grasp of Robert Green. There have to be question marks over the England keeper, but Petrov takes great credit for the shot.

With normal service resumed, Tevez was denied another goal by Green in a one-on-one engineered by a searing break by Bellamy and Petrov.

The second half was going to be a real acid test of City’s advance under Hughes. They had similarly ripped into Wolves in the opening league game of the season, and then allowed Mick McCarthy’s side to gain the upper hand in a nervy finish to the match.

This time they had to stamp their superiority on proceedings, and promptly did so.

Tevez came up with the clincher, belying his lack of height  and benefiting from the excellence of Bellamy’s whipped free kick to direct a header into the corner on 61 minutes.

West Han struggled manfully to get a toehold back in the game but with Nigel de Jong and Kolo Toure in no mood for charity, it always looked more likely that City would run away with it.

Gareth Barry forced Green into a fine fingertip save as the Blues pressed for a fourth.

Hughes has warned that the last three matches without the banned Adebayor have been a dress rehearsal for the New Year, when the Blues will lose him – and Toure – for over  a month to the African Cup of Nations.

On the evidence of last night, they should be able to cope, although there was no real chance to assess Santa Cruz, Adebayor’s obvious direct replacement.

Despite the derby defeat, this is still the Blues’ best start to a season since 1961, when they also won five of their first six.

A word of warning for anyone getting carried away by such impressive statistics – the ’61 team then only won two of their next 16 and ended up in a relegation battle!

With so many quality players bashing on his door, Hughes and his side are unlikely to let it slip so dramatically.