Mancini: Silva worth weight in gold for City

Roberto Mancini last night tipped David Silva to become a star after watching the Spanish World Cup winner bag his first Manchester City goal.

Silva repaid the first instalment on his £26million transfer fee to get City's Europa League campaign off to a winning start to the delight of Mancini.

"I think David is a fantastic player," said the City manager. "It's a different situation playing different football, but after one month he's ready to go 100 per cent for the team. He will be an important player for the future.

"David is a strong player. He's played for Valencia in the Champions League for many years. The Premier League is different and every player needs one or two months to understand English football.

"David can play in every position. For Valencia he played either right or left wing, but I think this position is the best for him.

"People may say he's too small, but he knows how to play football. Arsenal have two or three players like David and they play very well."

Vincent Kompany was just as impressed by Silva and agreed with Mancini that he can be a big player for City this season.

"He's an amazing player," he said. "Like every foreign player he needs time to settle in the Premier League. But we've seen a lot of his quality in training already. There will moments this season when he will be very important for us."

Jo scored his first City goal in nearly two years to seal City's win to repay Mancini's faith in him.

The Brazilian striker's Blues career looked over until Mancini brought him in from the cold this summer.

"For strikers it's important to score goals," said Mancini. "Jo has scored an important goal and I hope that he continues to play like he did tonight.

"I think that we are talking about two important players. For me my players are the best players in the world."

Mancini added: "I'm happy because it was important to start the group well and I thought we deserved to win this game."