By DAVID FACEY
MARIO BALOTELLI finally opened his Premier League account for the season as City shook off their lethargic mood just in time.
Roberto Mancini’s side had been outplayed until Balotelli’s 69th-minute strike and minutes later a James Milner piledriver knocked the stuffing out of Wigan.
Mancini may have questioned Balotelli’s attitude and commitment in training.
But he could not fault the desire his striker showed to force the ball home at the second attempt after keeper Ali Al Habsi had fumbled Gareth Barry’s tame low shot.
Al Habsi had also blundered to gift Reading a goal at the weekend but that one did not matter as his team scrambled a 3-2 win.
Any chance of another fightback here, though, ended three minutes later when City substitute Milner made certain of all three points with an absolute thunderbolt from the edge of the box.
Before that blast, Wigan had looked more than capable of preventing City from stretching their unbeaten top-flight run to 20 matches.
Arouna Kone provided an early demonstration of the Latics’ attacking intent as he forced Joe Hart into a low save after just two minutes.
Jean Beausejour also had a chance to test Hart after clever inter-passing between Kone, James McCarthy and Jordi Gomez, with Roberto Martinez’s Wigan looking cool and composed early on.
The only signs that City meant business in the first half was when the gloves came off for David Silva after 20 minutes.
Spaniard Silva made a big show of throwing them away but it was certainly not an indication that he or any of his team-mates were ready for a bare-knuckle scrap.
Wigan continued to enjoy the lion’s share of possession, with David Jones and McCarthy winning all the important challenges in midfield ahead of Yaya Toure and Barry.
But the hosts almost shot themselves in the foot with a couple of blunders from defender Maynor Figueroa allowing City’s Argentina striker Sergio Aguero a sniff of goal.
Aguero bagged a hat-trick against the Latics last season but there was no sign of the same killer instinct this time.
He shot wide from his first chance and then waited too long before pulling the trigger, allowing Adrian Lopez to slide in and clear.
At the resulting corner, Al Habsi confidently claimed Silva’s inswinger and Wigan were quickly back on the attack thanks to a barnstorming run down the right from Ronnie Stam.
He sprinted away from Aguero and skipped past Pablo Zabaleta with embarrassing ease — not for the first time either.
Kone made a terrific run to the front post and got his head to the ball just as Hart came to claim it — and City’s England stopper was relieved to see the ball land on top of his net.
Wigan’s neat passing had City chasing shadows at this stage but not chasing them hard enough to satisfy Mancini, who was going frantic on the touchline.
Gomez had Mancini shaking his head again as his free-kick dipped over City’s wall and flashed just past the woodwork.
Gomez, Wigan’s hat-trick hero against Reading, was causing City plenty of problems and had a decent claim for a penalty rejected after he was bundled over by Zabaleta.
Mancini’s half-time blast injected urgency into his team and, within 40 seconds of the restart, Silva tested Al Habsi with a fierce shot.
City had their own penalty shout waved away when Stam and Barry tangled in the box.
Then Balotelli wasted a great chance with a feeble back-post header from Maicon’s cross, before Kone was guilty of an even worse miss at the other end — a free header from six yards out.
That let-off seemed to spur City into action and Balotelli struck against the run of play, with Al Habsi looking as if he wanted the DW Stadium turf to swallow him up.
And when Milner smashed in three minutes later City were able to switch to cruise control.
But the statistics do not reflect a fine performance from Martinez’s men, who will play a lot worse and pick up points.
