Roberto Mancini can look forward to Manchester City’s debut in the Champions League against Napoli with no new injury worries and anxious Gareth Barry can return to full fitness after sustaining an injury on England duty.
The City manager explained: “I hope that Gareth can recover for Wednesday – I don’t know if it will be possible. The other players are all tired because they played for their national teams and we need to recover in the next three days.
“Carlos (Tevez) is not 100-per-cent at this moment but I am happy for him. He missed a penalty, but this can happen. For him it was important to start and play well, maybe in two or three games he will be fine.
“Napoli will be hard, our first game in the Champions League, and the first game is always difficult.”
Mancini was pleased with City’s performance against Wigan but felt his players should have finished the game off earlier than they did.
He explained: “I enjoy it when we play football very well like against Tottenham.
“But we had 15 chances in the first half and only scored one goal. This is a problem because in football at any moment the game can change.
“After the second goal the game was closed but it’s better to close the game in the first half.
“All the players played well, with these players it’s easy but every team can improve. We’ve started the season very well but it’s a long season.”
Mancini poured praise onto his players for the way they controlled the game but was quick to point out that they needed more time to gel together effectively.
“(David) Silva is a top player, like (Sergio) Aguero, Yaya (Toure) and (Samir) Nasri. For them it’s easy to play football. It’s also important to put these top players into the squad.”