The only unbeaten team in the English Premier League before the start of the weekend's action - Everton - is now beaten.
Manchester City found their groove back, not at their smoothest, grooviest, but enough of a groove, to pick up a 3-1 win over Everton and not only go above their opponents, but all the way up to second in the Premier League table.
Romelu Lukaku continued his goalscoring form, slotting in the opener for Everton, only for Alvaro Negredo to equalise immediately.
Sergio Aguero then struck just before halftime for City, before a Tim Howard own goal gave the side from Manchester all three points at the Etihad.
Manuel Pellegrini made three changes to his side, bringing Sergio Aguero and David Silva into the first XI, while Joleon Lescott replaced Matija Nastasic in the centre of defence.
The first little interesting aspect in the several sub-plots of the game was to see how much possession Everton would enjoy in the game, and the first ten minutes or so suggested a fair bit.
The Toffees looked comfortable on the ball and seemed happy to take their time to find the right passes and unlock that City defence.
However, despite all the intricate passing and channel running in the first few minute, it was a straightforward long ball that got Everton the opening goal.
As the City defence stepped up Romelu Lukaku kept himself on before latching onto a long ball. The Belgian then showed great composure to skip past Lescott with ease before slotting it low past Joe Hart, who could not keep the ball out despite getting a decent fist to it - questions will again be asked over Hart's keeping for that goal.
The opening goal was scored in the 16th minute, but the lead for Everton only lasted a minute as City equalised with a wonderfully created goal. Yaya Toure and Silva exchanged a couple of passes on the edge of the box before the former weighted a perfect ball to Alvaro Negredo to sweep home past Tim Howard.
James Milner nearly forced a second goal for City, when his cross off a short corner was almost deflected in by James McCarthy.
Then it was the Sergio Aguero show in the rest of the half for City, who were dealt a blow in the first half with skipper Vincent Kompany forced off with an injury.
The first chance for Aguero was off a brilliantly worked training ground move. Fernandinho stood over a 35-yard freekick down the right, before shaping to shoot. The Brazilian, though, instead chose to pass to Silva, who in turn picked out the run of Aguero. The Argentine, though, surprisingly fired his shot wide, with just the goalkeeper to beat.
Kevin Mirallas forced a nice save from Hart at the other end soon after, but the goal would not have counted anyway had the ball gone in, with the assistant referee correctly flagging the Belgian offside.
Aguero's second chance came when Negredo slipped him through, but the striker forgot to take the ball with him while trying to cut in before pulling the trigger.
All those chances were forgotten on 45 minutes, however, as Silva, running the game, found a through ball to Aguero on the inside right channel, with the latter smashing a low drive past Howard and into the bottom corner.
City took complete control of the second half, with possession very much dominated by the home side as they looked to put the game beyond Everton.
After a little bit if pressing and probing and half-chances went astray, City were handed a perfect opportunity to make it 3-1 with a little over 20 minutes remaining.
Pablo Zabaleta looked to move past Seamus Coleman down the right channel, with the Argentine defender going down under a slight touch from the Everton right-back. The referee pointed to the spot much to Everton's dissatisfaction, awarding City the chance they were craving for all half.
Aguero struck a weak penalty to the bottom left of Howard, who saved the ball onto the post, but, unfortunately for the American goalkeeper, the ball ricocheted off his body and back into the net.
The game petered out after that as City celebrated a much-needed victory.
