Manchester City stumble past Leicester at the Etihad

David Silva opened the scoring on Wednesday night

Manchester City laboured to a 2-0 victory against rock-bottom Leicester City but it was another unconvincing display by the home side.

The Foxes remain rooted to the foot of the table despite producing a spirited display and they were unfortunate to hit the woodwork and have two penalty appeals waved away by the referee.

Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini made five changes to his starting line-up from the one that lost at Liverpool on Sunday, with Vincent Kompany, Pablo Zabaleta, Samir Nasri, Fernandinho and Edin Dzeko all losing their places.

Ivory Coast international Wilfried Bony was handed his first start for the club since arriving from Swansea City in January, while Leicester boss Nigel Pearson named the same side that had drawn 2-2 with Everton in their last game.

Manchester City, who had only won two of their last seven Premier League matches, and also suffered an FA Cup exit to Middlesbrough and a Champions League defeat to Barcelona since the turn of the year, dominated the early stages without creating many clear-cut chances.

In the fourth minute David Silva played in Aleksandar Kolarov whose attempt to cross the ball into the box was blocked, and from the resulting corner Bony beat Wes Morgan but his header was cleared off the line by Esteban Cambiasso.

When Leicester launched their first attack, Jeffrey Schlupp dallied on the ball too long and the chance was gone.

In the tenth minute Yaya Toure tried his luck from distance but the Ivory Coast international's effort was easily saved by Leicester's veteran Australian goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer.

Kolarov was finding lots of space down the left flank in the opening exchanges but his final ball was too often not of the required standard.

Leicester slowly began to work their way into the match and they were unfortunate not to be awarded a penalty in the 28th minute when Bony appeared to foul Schlupp inside the box only for referee Robert Madley to wave play on.

The home fans were starting to grow a little frustrated as everything their side tried failed to come off and Leicester grew in confidence as a result.

Andrey Kramaric was only just beaten to the ball by Joe Hart with the England goalkeeper having to be extremely alert to alleviate the danger.

Jesus Navas broke forward and set up Bony whose volley was kept out by Schwarzer and the striker then took the ball on his chest before blazing a left-footed volley over the bar.

On the stroke of half time Manchester City took the lead with a goal they barely deserved, Silva rolling the ball home after Bony's shot had been blocked by Wes Morgan as the impish Spaniard registered his tenth league goal of the campaign.

After the break Bony scuffed a shot wide before Leicester thought Kramaric had been brought down inside the penalty area by Fernando, only for the referee to award a free-kick.

The Croatian took the free-kick himself but it deflected narrowly wide of Hart's goal and into the side-netting.

Foxes substitute David Nugent then contrived to fire wide of an open goal, although the linesman's flag was raised for offside before, in the 70th minute Schwarzer made a superb fingertip save to keep Toure's curling effort out.

Aguero then lashed a volley across the face of goal after good play by Silva.

With 14 minutes left Leicester went incredibly close to snatching an equaliser when Riyad Mahrez hit the woodwork.

However, the home side wrapped up the three points in the 88th minute when Toure and Navas created the opening for substitute James Milner to slot the ball home from close range.