Points more important than performances

Last night's 2-0 home victory over neighbours Bolton was a largely drab affair won by two moments of magic - a driving run from new winger Adam Johnson to earn a penalty that Carlos Tevez was fortunate to put home, and an exquisite pass from midfield veteran Patrick Vieira leading to a commanding finish from Emmanual Adebayor. Job done, admittedly, but another uninspiring spectacle where we rode our luck.

As others have already mentioned, the system was wrong and didn't enable us to play to our main strengths or attack Bolton with any kind of fluidity. We were unbalanced and not pressing the opposition as high up the pitch as we should. Ultimately, though, we saw off a side despite playing well below our capabilities.

Whilst Tevez and Adebayor have both proved themselves more than adept at dropping deep and starting moves, you want your forwards in the centre of the final third of the pitch, them drifting over to the flanks sends out a negative message to your opponents, and had we been playing a better side last night we might not have ended up with the three points.

Not that i have any real problem with us playing averagely, so long as we continue to pick up points. Bolton was a big game in the sense that it was, on paper at least, the easiest league fixture we'll have for some time. Given the poor result and performance at Hull it was important we got back to winning ways to boost confidence ahead of the tricky ties with Stoke, Spurs, Liverpool and Chelsea.

What people can't accuse Mancini of is being short of ideas or not testing his squad. He's already tried different formations - so far we've seen a 4-4-1-1, a 4-5-1, a return to a more orthodox 4-4-2, and last night's 4-3-3. Players are being tested in different roles; Barry on the left, for instance, Sylvinho being pushed into central midfield, and Petrov and Ireland trying their luck on the right. Then there are the youngsters being pushed into the senior side. He's certainly assessing his lot and trying different things.

Playing three 'defensive' midfielders (though i'm not sure i agree Barry necessarily fits that tag, but his best performance of the season, during the opening day win at Blackburn, certainly involved him playing that role) at home against a poor side was a decision that whilst negative was also quite brave. Anything less than a commanding performance and the half-empty lot would have been on his case.

From very early on last night it was obvious to me that we were very unbalanced. Adam Johnson played very well, was always looking for the ball and to run at his man, and had as good a home debut as i can remember in recent seasons. He provided the same sort of permanent outlet that Martin Petrov can on the other side when fully fit, and with the Bulgarian on the opposing flank and our forwards shoved up the field we may have had a bit more joy against a side who were missing three quarters of their first-choice defence.

That splendid pass aside, i thought Pat Vieira had a poor full debut, but his recent injury problems mean it will be a number of weeks before he gets back to anything resembling full fitness. His distribution was especially off, though that accusation could easy be levelled at most who started. I didn't feel we looked any tighter in the centre, but that's to be expected when you don't have any real possession players in the midfield.

The introduction of Shaun Wright-Phillips changed the game, i thought. He immediately livened us up and we both kept the ball better and shown an improved willingness to take the game to Bolton. At home you have to play either two wingers or if you must go with a front three, then an attacking-minded midfielder amongst the bank behind them.

In a sense, we're trying to have our cake and eat it. Our lack of activity in the recent transfer window indicates to me that Mancini's on an all-or-nothing mission for fourth place. If that's true then you can't blame him for a slightly cautious approach, and it's in his nature being a son of Serie A. My hope, however, is that he's here for the long haul, top four or not, and rather than concentrate on the negatives performance-wise, we should take comfort in the old adage that winning without playing that well is the sign of a top team. I'm sure we'd all take slight wins from now until the season's end.