After a week of upheaval and upstarts, the first thing Roberto Mancini needed was a show of support, off the pitch from the Manchester City fans, and on it from his players. He got both in spades.

The Carlos Tevez affair had the Blues’ title rivals chuckling up their sleeves.

Not only had the Argentinian’s self-obsessed behaviour threatened to destabilise the team’s brilliant start to the Premier League season.

The manager needed to know that his hard-line stance on Tevez’s tantrum was backed by the support.

His answer came over loud and clear, as the 7,000 travelling fans chanted his name, over and over.

A section even chanted for Pablo Zabaleta, who allegedly thumped Tevez in the dressing room in the aftermath of his apparent refusal to play in the defeat at Bayern Munich.

But what was more important for Mancini was to see his players turn it around, not just because of Tevez, but because the need to dispel memories of a poor team display in the Allianz Arena was imperative.

They could not have asked for more obliging opposition than Blackburn, whose defensive approach smacked of damage limitation rather than any realistic attempt to win the game.

After a slow start, the Blues cut loose in a tremendous second half to make it six wins and a draw from the first seven games – their best start since Queen Victoria was on the throne, in 1897. And, with the deepest irony, the men who undid Blackburn were two who – unlike Tevez – came in from the cold with good grace and mean intentions.

Adam Johnson’s brilliant opening goal broke a frustrating deadlock, and Mario Balotelli secured the win in typically nonchalant style.

Who would have thought, six months ago, that Tevez would be getting lessons from Balotelli in humility, application and patience?

The game had the potential to heap further misery on the Blues, forced to launch an internal review of Tevez’s behaviour which is distracting and possibly divisive.

And when Sergio Aguero limped off the pitch, wincing and tenderly pressing his groin with less than half an hour gone, the ramifications of the sorry affair looked like they might be practical as well.

The fact that Samir Nasri replaced the little Argentinian rather than Edin Dzeko - who showed displeasure at being subbed against Bayern - not only spoke of Mancini’s determination to drive home the message to rest of his squad, it also proved that there are other solutions to his selection dilemma.

Nasri’s introduction changed the game. He brought vim and verve to the left side of City’s attack, allowed Silva to move more central and exert his influence, and shunted Balotelli up front, where he punished Blackburn.

But it was Johnson who grabbed the vital first goal.

Possession

The Blues had followed a familiar pattern until then, keeping possession and letting the opposition chase their way to the point of exhaustion.

Johnson gathered the ball 25 yards out, when Aleks Kolarov’s corner was cleared to his feet, and after two quick, neat touches curled his shot into the far top corner.

It was a replica of his first City goal, at Sunderland, a strike which won him the club’s Goal of the Season.

It also smashed down the doors of Blackburn’s increasingly feeble resistance. Balotelli looked like having a frustrating day. He had missed a couple of first half chances, curled another shot narrowly wide and missed with an outrageous overhead kick.

He stepped it up in the second half.

His chest control, touch and curling shot against the far post was sublime.

And two minutes after Johnson had struck, he again showed his quality.

Balotelli infuriates and inspires in equal measure.

He is the kind of player who divides fans to the point where some go away from a game believing he had a shocker, while others name him man of the match.

His goal here showed why. As Nasri worked an opening on the left, Balotelli was jogging towards the penalty area, seemingly too late and too casual to benefit from the Frenchman’s endeavours.

But with a burst of speed and perfect timing, he dashed to the near post and launched himself into the air ahead of a bewildered Scott Dann just in time to guide Nasri’s cross past keeper Paul Robinson with his studs.

It looked like a straight-forward goal, but it was top quality. Balotelli finds the game so easy that you wonder what he could achieve if he had the drive and desire of a Lionel Messi.

With Silva pulling the strings, City were now on a roll, and made it 3-0 from a classic counter-attack led by the magnificent Spaniard.

Drawing in defenders, he slipped the ball to Nasri who was on the left and, after an exchange of passes, the former Arsenal man crashed in his first City goal via a deflection.

The final say fell to Stefan Savic, on as a substitute, who was left unmarked from Nasri’s corner to power home a header.

Mancini even hammered home his point by giving Dzeko a couple of minutes on the pitch – a clear indication to the repentant Bosnian that his dissent in Munich is forgiven and forgotten.

On Thursday, City, as a club, was a basket case. Not for the first time, a day out in Blackburn proved to be the perfect therapy.

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