Blackburn Rovers 2 - Manchester City 3Soccer: Kevin Keegan must be loving this. For the first time ever in the Premiership Manchester City supporters awake this morning giddy and peering down from the summit. Early days these may be, but heady days they most certainly are.
Nicolas Anelka's stunning 88th-minute winner lifted them to the top, slipped incredibly through a stunned Brad Friedel's legs from the tightest of angles after the Frenchman had burst on the David Sommeil's punt and beyond Lorenzo Amoruso.
Defeat was harsh on Rovers, not that the delirious City fans cared.
For all the startling additions already made to these sides over the summer, the talk is still of further signings. City hope to add one more to their squad ahead of Sunday's transfer deadline while Rovers await a response from Rangers over Barry Ferguson.
Ferguson would add more bite to a Rovers midfield whose rampaging demolition of Wolves on the first Saturday swelled expectations in this pocket of east Lancashire. It took barely four minutes to burst that particular bubble. Martin Taylor's foul on Antoine Sibierski some 38 yards out prompted little alarm among home ranks and no wall. Up strolled Michael Tarnat to explode an attempt that swerved viciously out of the middle distance and beyond Friedel's right hand.
Blackburn were floored in the immediate aftermath, the groggy Taylor appearing to drag down Anelka as he wriggled into the area. Yet while Amoruso was distinctly less comfortable than he had been against Wolves, Brett Emerton flourished again.
The Australian watched aghast as Steven Reid's shot was palmed out by David Seaman with Dwight Yorke unable to contort and convert the rebound. Unperturbed, Emerton ambled up to take a corner a minute from the interval, fizzing a centre towards the near post which the leaping Trevor Sinclair, unaware Seaman had advanced, flicked into the far corner.
That should have tipped the balance, the strut briefly restored to Rovers' stride. Yet, for all the home side's frenzy, it was City's poise on the break which proved productive.
Rovers had been warned. Joey Barton's delicious through ball had sent Shaun Wright-Phillips scurrying. The winger's pull-back was touched square by Anelka and bent wide of the far post by Sibierski. The 20-year-old Barton went alone moments later, his touch evading Amoruso, his persistence breaking Taylor's weak challenge, and he steered a low shot beyond Friedel.
Cue a chorus of "We are, top of the league" from the City partisans, though those choked rather embarrassingly in their throats within two minutes. Emerton's corner veered into the near post where Amoruso, replicating his debut goal against Wolves, rose to flick home.
BLACKBURN (4-4-2): Friedel; Neill, Taylor, Amoruso, Gresko; Emerton, Flitcroft, Tugay, Reid (Thompson, 64); Cole, Yorke (Jansen, 56). Booked: Tugay, Neill.
MANCHESTER CITY (4-5-1): Seaman; Sun Jihai, Sommeil, Distin, Tarnat; Wright-Phillips, Barton, Sibierski, Bosvelt, Sinclair; Anelka. Booked: Distin.
Referee: A Wiley.
