Chelsea ended a five-match run without a win when they beat Bolton Wanderers 3-0 to ease some of the pressure on under-fire coach Andre Villas-Boas.
Newcastle United, challenging for a top four finish for the first time since 2003, stumbled to a 2-2 home draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers for whom Terry Connor was in charge for the first time as caretaker manager.
The reconciliation of Argentine striker Carlos Tevez with his club dominated the off-field headlines earlier in the week, but Man City's form on the field showed again they could well win their first title since 1968 whether he plays or not.
Their victory was rarely in doubt after Balotelli ended a swift City counter-attack by thumping home first time after 30 minutes. Aguero made it 2-0 when he took advantage of Rovers goalkeeper Paul Robinson's flap at a corner to fire in from close range after 52 minutes.
"It has been a good February, and now we need a good March and April and to be top of the table in May," happy City boss Roberto Mancini told ESPN afterwards.
"We had to be patient, it was difficult, Blackburn play with 10 players behind the ball and if you don't score you have a problem but in the end we scored three goals with all three strikers scoring and we deserved to win the game."
Balotelli celebrated his goal in his usual manner by raising his shirt to reveal a T-shirt with the slogan "Raffaella I Love You" in Italian, and while he may love his girlfriend, Mancini was also full of adoration for him.
"He scored a fantastic goal, he had a very good game again," he said.
