Edin Dzeko believes he is on an upward curve with Manchester City after scoring his first goal in 10 attempts in the Barclays Premier League.
The Bosnian striker handed his side a 1-0 victory against Blackburn at Ewood Park when he found the target in the 75th minute, three minutes after stepping off the bench.
Dzeko, a £27million signing from Wolfsburg in January, smashed the ball home at the back post following Phil Jones' misplaced clearance to keep his side in pole position to win the race to fourth place.
He said: "Now we have to look at the future - it is a new beginning for me and for City.
"I'm very happy that this goal helped my team to win the game. Sometimes it's difficult, I'm not the first who didn't make the best start."
Dzeko's drought has been focused on in parallel with that of Chelsea's £50million man Fernando Torres, who opened his account against West Ham on Saturday.
Dzeko added on Sky Sports 1: "It's football, Torres scored a lot of goals at Liverpool and changed club. I'm happy for him too because I know what the pressure is."
Manager Roberto Mancini praised Dzeko as City closed in on a Champions League spot. The Blues are now four points clear of fifth-placed Tottenham.
Mancini said: "I am sure it will help his confidence. Edin is a fantastic striker.
"He had problems with not playing some games and had difficulties not scoring. But he scored an important goal for us.
"He deserved to score as he is a good guy. It was not easy for him and because of this I will enjoy tonight.
"It was a very big win, especially as it was away from home, because at this stage every game is difficult. In the first half we played some great football and should have scored two goals.
"We scored in the second half when we had some problems because Blackburn played long ball but we deserved to win."
Blackburn remain only one point outside the relegation zone with four games remaining and manager Steve Kean was left cursing his luck.
He said: "I feel very hard done by. I don't like to moan about referees but we feel their goal was offside with Balotelli standing in front of Paul Robinson.
"We felt we had a good shout for a penalty a bump on Niko (Kalinic) but he probably made it hard for the referee by staying on his feet.
"Full credit to the lads, none of them have anything left. If we continue to approach the games like that we will put points on the table."
Source : The Independent 26 April 2011
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