Nigel de Jong and Micah Richards are intent on keeping City’s good run rolling on after their key roles in Monday night’s win over Blackburn Rovers.

The Dutch midfielder was at his combative, industrious best and watched Carlos Tevez’s hat trick admiringly.

“He just keeps on scoring for us and he’s on fire at the moment,” he told ESPN. “He turned in an excellent performance again today and you have to give him praise – but he has a good team behind him!”

Roberto Mancini presided over his fourth straight win since becoming City manager, and de Jong added his own insights on what the Italian has done since arriving.

“He changed a lot of tactical stuff working with the same players, but he has brought a lot of young players in as well and some that were written off,” continued Nigel. “Credit to him for putting a good side out in each game, and we saw it again tonight. We’re happy with our team performance and we have a lot of confidence right now. We just have to keep this momentum going.

“We’re all on our toes for every game, you don’t want to go to the bench. I think that’s why we are successful at the moment, so we must keep it going into the next game.”

The night’s other goal came from Micah Richards, who agreed with his team mate over the quiet confidence that Mancini has instilled in a short space of time.

Micah said, “Since the Manager has come in he has brought a real confidence with him. We’re showing that on the pitch and we’re getting results. I feel I’m at my best at centre half, but there’s another hard game at Everton coming up so hopefully I can take my form into that one as well.”