The Italian striker broke the deadlock just eight minutes after replacing Edin Dzeko on the hour mark, before fellow substitute James Milner sealed victory late on.
That saw City edge a point above United at the top of the Premier League table, with their neighbours in action at Stoke in Saturday's evening kick-off.
The Blues dominated possession during the first half but struggled to break down a typically stubborn Everton outfit, who did the double over City the last two seasons and won on their previous four trips to the Etihad Stadium.
As the visitors began to threaten, Roberto Mancini brought on Balotelli in a bid to shake City up and he soon made his mark, finding the bottom corner from 20 yards.
Milner then struck in the 89th minute to ensure City got back to winning ways after their 100% start came to an end with last week’s 2-2 draw at Fulham.
Everton are a stoic bunch and despite enduring another summer of fiscal austerity at Goodison Park, manager David Moyes has engineered a decent start to the season.
Moyes' masterplan this time was for Jack Rodwell to man-mark David Silva and it was a task the Toffees’ midfielder stuck to gamely. Silva moved himself next to Everton left-back Leighton Baines, in theory creating a huge hole for the remainder of City's midfield to fill.
That they did not manage it was in part due to the cussedness of Phil Neville and Seamus Coleman, who tackled anything that moved, and part due to lacklustre displays from Yaya Toure and Samir Nasri, neither of whom imposed themselves on the contest.
Indeed, there were only 10 minutes of the opening period remaining when Tim Howard was forced into his first save. It was a good one though, the American keeper parrying Sergio Aguero's curling shot despite Dzeko’s not inconsiderable frame closing in.
Howard also denied Gareth Barry shortly afterwards as City began to turn the screw, although by the time referee Howard Webb blew his whistle for half-time, Everton were showing more attacking intent than they had done since the opening moments, when they were actually on top.
The hosts came close to opening their account straight after the restart when former City skipper Sylvain Distin rather unconvincingly combined with Howard to turn Nasri's dangerous cross behind.
City were unable to maintain the pressure though, and Mancini turned to compatriot Balotelli ahead of deposed skipper Carlos Tevez. And a very astute move it turned out to be as the 21-year-old struck with Everton still reorganising after the substitution of danger-man Tim Cahill, who had earlier guided a header just over but then came off worst in a challenge with Vincent Kompany that led to him becoming the fourth visiting player booked.
Balotelli claimed his first goal of the season in the midweek Carling Cup win over Birmingham and Aguero was the architect of Balotelli’s second , crabbing in from the right flank before rolling the ball into his strike partner’s path as he found his own route into the penalty area blocked.
Without a league goal since February, the Italy striker took aim, benefiting from a slight deflection off Phil Jagielka as the ball nestled in the bottom corner.
Balotelli immediately sprinted towards his manager to celebrate, any irritation that has existed between the pair currently not in evidence.
Within a couple of minutes, Silva had almost made it two, drilling a low shot against the base of Howard's left-hand post.
Howard was able to reach Balotelli's next effort, a stinging shot from the edge of the area that was heading for the bottom corner. Only an offside flag then denied Silva a goal after tapping home Balotelli's low cross.
Milner eventually secured the win though, racing onto Silva's through-ball before keeping his nerve to beat Howard. However, fellow sub Stefan Savic had to make a goal-line clearance at the death to make it a clean sheet too. Tweet
Comments
Login or Register to comment
Get in there!!
Had to be very patient today to break down the stubborn Toffees........ stuck at it, didn't panic and got the 3 points, well done City - top o' the league!!
Three hard fought points –– a good team performance against what you’d expect from Everton. We showed some character & In the end were good for the points, though Moyes will cry about the referee & the 5 bookings - they deserved with their usual brand of nip & niggle.
Best moment for me was Balotelli going to Mancini after he’d scored.
Good substitutions & a Sweet win.
not a great performance but a win, but I still dont see the team that will win title yet....at eastlands
There’s only one way to deal with toffees with an attitude: Chew them up and enjoy. Well done to Roberto and the team. My beautiful CITY.
One of my very best friends is an Evertonian and I'm embarrassed for him after that. Foulball, not football from them today.
Nice to see the lads stay patient and get the win. Was it me or was David Silva's work for the second simply outrageous?
Empty chairs at empty tables...
Should soon replace Blue moon as the City song.
What's the excuses this time?
As usual Everton's game plan was to hack our players off the pitch. Our lads showed great patience and got the result. It was a tough game but we can expect teams will come and put 10 behind the ball.
Everton stopped Silva for 2/3s of game and stopped city. Well done to Mario for making a difference. Games are going to be tough if teams follow Everton and man mark merlin. Need to adapt to this tactic. Good win in the end.
3 points, job done, next
Ha ha ha ha - oh how sweet it is..........delicious.
We didnt play that well today but when you consider the combination of the weather and Evertons pathetic spoiling tactics it didnt really surprise me. What was great though was the fact that we fought as a team and eventually our quality put them to the most deserved of swords. We were the only team trying to play football and Everton were doing nothing but fouling and, yet again, time wasting. Ive never seen a team take longer on throw ins and - in particular - goal kicks, so obviously on purpose as well. Pathetic..............
Well played lads, Super duper Mario showed great professionalism in his performance and Milner deserved that goal for the improvement he has shown since being moved into the middle this season. Silva and Aguerro with 2 beautiful assists and i thought Nasri kept posession very well. MOTM for me though was Maicon Richards. Solid at the back, brave in the air and good going forward - how the hell is Smalling beating him to an England spot at RB???
Oh, and for anyone who likes to feel all warm and fuzzy inside i urge them to take note of the footage of Mancini sharing the sweeties that he'd bought with his paper round money. Heart warming stuff indeed............Oh well, i guess know nothing know it all Leon super chav Osman was wrong about our supposed lack of team spirit.............COME ON CITY!!!!
nice god result against a very defensive everton but well done lads a hard earned win
What a joke of a team Everton are, not that you could expect anything less from a Moyes side. Webb and his cronies also had a shocker today no protection at all from that bunch of thugs who call themselves a football team.
On a lighter note, great character and unity shown by the lads today, it would have been easy to get sucked into their game but we showed great patience.
Mario's celebration was a joy to watch and slammed shut some of these rumour mongers' traps, spouting off about a rift between him and Roberto.
Another bogy team bites the dust after Arsenal and Spurs. Everton's spoiling tactics didn't work this time round. Silva and Nasri really learning to play well together now. Inspired subs both rewarded with a goal. How is Tevez going to get game time now? Can't see him going in Jan windopw as he's cup-tied for Chimps League. Defence now as tight as a nun's nasty after the Fulham wobble. Onwards and upwards.
Everton are hands-down, the MOST frustrating team in the league!
Excellent result against a dirty Everton side. No doubt Moyes will be whinging and moaning about something. No class that man. Silva was superb and loved the team spirit. CITY !
One word to describe this game; laborious. Not helped by Everton's tactics of everybody behind the ball. But we didn't make it easy for ourselves at times. Too much trying to play through the middle of their defence and too slow build-up. What we were crying out for was width down the wings, especially the overlapping fullbacks. Dzeko needs crosses to get the best from him and we didn't provide that for him. Sometimes he looks out of place in tight spaces when our smaller more nimble players are trying to play neat and quick one two's to feet through the middle. Silva was excellent again. He was tightly marked yet still found space and was involved in everything creative we did. I still think Lescott is a liability at the back. He looked good when he played for Everton because of the way the set up which gave the back four lots of protection, a bit like city last season. But with a more attacking midfield set-up which then leave the back four a bit more vulnerable Lescott's shortcomings are exposed. It was a good win against our bogey side so I'm happy, but there is still work to do.
Jammy lot. A 0-0 draw would have been a fair result as I thought that Everton played their hearts out and what did their squad cost?
The match was about as entertaining as watching grass grow!
Heading for Banjul in 5 mins and i won't be home early if you get my drift !!!!!!!
YIPEEEEEEEEEEE We have broken the physcological Spell Bitter Moyes had on us .
This result is very special to me, a bloddy toffee nose lives 2 miles away wonder if he will be in the Pink Jaraf today ???? Doubt it.
Thought we showed the maturity which we are starting too develop.
Well done everybody and greetings to all fellow BLUES . ctid
Is there anybody, anywhere in the world, opposition fans or neutrals, tv watchers or live, who looks at the fixture schedule and says "great, it's Everton...... that'll be a good game"?
The team that wouldn't die (24/09/2011 at 14:56)
Empty chairs at empty tables...
Should soon replace Blue moon as the City song.
What's the excuses this time?
...........................................................................................................................
Half 12 kick off, people at work, midweek match, no money, game on the telly and still 47.400 turn out, now that is what i call devotion, well done to all the loyal true blues for making it a great atmosphere, and a well deserved win against a very poor everton side who just came to kick us and play for a draw.
As for you, the team that always lies, empty chairs and empty table is from les miserables which always reminds me of manure and their club and horrible fans,
but this verse from that song.........
From the table in the corner
They could see a world reborn
And they rose with voices ringing
I can hear them now!
The very words that they had sung
Became their last communion
On the lonely barricade at dawn.
This verse alone is Manchester City personified, the re-birth of the blues, with the voices singing the blues onwards to the title, the flame has been lit, long may it burn!
Now please go away and find something new to bleat about because you rag boy, just like your rag mates are getting very very predictable and totally boring.
I think was a hard game (for obvious reasons) and so hats off to our lads who do the business for us - I am thinking of Lescott, Richards, Milner, Yaya, Barry, and David.
Sell out?
How do you account for the numerous empty seats, then?
mark mywords and 1957, spain if that was a full house then the Queen has no soldiers and Blackpool Tower has just fell down , wake up open your eyes there were lots of empty seats around the ground , Ciddy might be trying to pull the wool over UEFA'S eyes but even they will know that was not a sell out MASSIVE .
Good Result. Everton, as expected made things difficult and played with their usual crudeness. Pleased that at last we've managed to see off the Everton hoodoo.