Manchester City first team coach David Platt was full of praise for Mario Balotelli after victory at Blackburn Rovers.

Platt was full of praise for the influential Balotelli, who was preferred to start alongside Aguero with Bosnian Edin Dzeko the one to make way.

Platt said: "Mario has had a lot of column inches in the last 12 months or so and a lot of it has been negative. That's fine but I think he deserves the plaudits as well."