Valencia spoiled Sven-Goran Eriksson's Manchester City welcoming party at Eastlands to leave City's new manager with plenty of work to do before their Premier League opener at West Ham next week.

With five new signings in his starting line-up, some of whom the former England manager had never even seen play it was always going to be an interesting day for the Swede.

Eriksson would certainly have been able to pick a few positives out of the narrow defeat, not least the performance of young midfielder Michael Johnson.

But David Silva's early winner, combined with a series of missed chances including two by star striker Rolando Bianchi, confirmed the theory it may take some time for Eriksson's new-look side to gel.

With new owner Thaksin Shinawatra looking down proudly from the stand above, Eriksson had strode onto the pitch before kick-off to a standing ovation, bowing politely to all four corners of the ground.

It was an enthusiastic welcome, although the sight of thousands of empty seats suggested the former England coach has some work to do if he is to claw back the huge number of City fans who have become increasingly disillusioned with life at Eastlands.

In contrast, Ricky Hatton will forever be a hero in these parts and when he was spotted taking his seat five minutes into the game, the world light-welterweight boxing champion - and lifelong City supporter - was greeted like the superstar he has become.

Hatton barely had time to take his seat before Eriksson's side fell behind.

Switzerland Under-21 skipper Gelson Fernandes was the man at fault, gifting possession to Silva 35 yards out.

Silva laid a neat pass off to Miguel Angel Angulo but when his shot was parried by Kasper Schmeichel - handed his chance in the absence of injured duo Andreas Isaksson and Joe Hart - the Spanish international stroked home the rebound.

To their credit, City responded in defiant fashion with academy graduate Johnson leading the resistance.

Johnson rattled the Valencia bar with a fierce 25-yard shot and not long afterwards Bianchi did the same as he tried to steer Elano's cross goalwards.

An £8.8million capture from Reggina, Bianchi is the man Eriksson is hoping will end a scoring crisis which condemns City to start the new campaign without a home Premier League goal since New Year's Day.

Bianchi certainly has the physique of a modern-day forward but the way he fluffed a golden opportunity when Marco Caneira's attempted clearance rebounded off Martin Petrov and spun into his path was a bit of a worry.

Petrov sparked sporadically down the left flank, although it appears the Bulgarian will look to cause defences problems with the accuracy of his crosses rather than any speed or trickery.

Geovanni became the first Brazilian to sign for City last month but did not show much Samba flair when he smashed a long-range free-kick straight into the Valencia wall.

Bianchi then failed to turn his far-post header goalwards after Petrov had picked him out before Geovanni volleyed the Blues' last chance over from close range.