Manchester City secured their fifth-consecutive English Premier League win with a tight 3-1 victory over Wolves at Etihad Stadium.
A Wayne Hennessey howler gifted the home side the lead in the 52nd minute through Edin Dzeko, before Aleksandar Kolarov pounced on David Silva's deflected effort 15 minutes later to double the hosts' advantage.
Vincent Kompany was sent off on 74 minutes after he brought down Kevin Doyle in the area, with Stephen Hunt dispatching the resulting penalty to make Roberto Mancini's men endure a nail-biting final 15 minutes before Adam Johnson wrapped it up late on.
The hosts made three changes to the team that humiliated Manchester United in last Sunday’s derby, with Kolarov, Samir Nasri and Dzeko - who scored two in the Carling Cup against Wolves on Tuesday - coming in for Gael Clichy, James Milner and the in-form Mario Balotelli.
The latter pair, both of who were superb at Old Trafford, were most likely rested for City’s vital trip to Villarreal in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Mick McCarthy also made a trio of changes to the starting XI that drew late on with Swansea City seven days ago, with David Edwards, Hunt and Adlene Guedioura taking the places of Matt Jarvis, Adam Hammill and Sylvain Ebanks-Blake.
Mancini’s men came into the game having seen Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United bounce back from their derby mauling with a 1-0 win away to Everton earlier on Saturday, reducing City’s lead at the Premier League summit from five points to two.
City started like a team desperate to regain their advantage, as Nasri's 20-yard volley after only 74 seconds was tipped over by Wayne Hennessey.
The explosive start soon faded, however, with the home side maintaining possession but struggling to break a dogged Wolves defence down.
As the 15-minute mark passed, City were looking comfortable, if a little frustrated.
The mood continued to grow shortly after as Dzeko failed to convert a volley from a matter of yards, with Micah Richards' deflected cross after a marauding run having bounced in to the path of the Bosnian.
His reaction was slow and Wolves hung on to maintain the deadlock.
It was nearly broken shortly before the 25th minute as Aguero picked up the ball 30 yards out, moved dangerously towards the area and hit a rasping drive towards Hennessey's bottom right corner, only for the Welshman to keep it out with a superb stop that had him at full stretch.
Undeterred, the Argentine then missed another chance from a matter of yards, lazily scooping an effort wide as City looked to dominate.
The home fans were becoming increasingly agitated as half-time approached and referee Stuart Attwell was facing the majority of their fury, with Dzeko having been grabbed in the box by Richard Stearman after a dinked cross by Nasri.
Had the official been closer to the incident, one suspects he would have pointed to the spot.
But the main foe of City's first 45 minutes was proving to be Wolves' hero, as Hennessey pulled out another excellent save to deny Dzeko when the Bosnian had been played in brilliantly by Silva.
For the first time in five games, City went in at the break without a goal to their name.
They were not made to wait long after the break to score, however, and it was Hennessey who went from hero to zero when Aguero put the dallying