Blue Days

City emerged with three points thanks to moments of brilliance from Adam Johnson and Emmanual Adebayor, along with a defensive mindset that achieved a clean sheet. Like the previous two games it was far from pretty as this time Roberto Mancini sought to shore up the midfield with de Jong, Barry and Vieira.

Given – Clearly under instructions to try and play the ball out to defenders, and not to be concerned about initiating attacks with a quick throw. The result was a few a sloppy clearances from the normally reliable Shay. 6

Zabaleta – A big improvement on his performance at Hull, where the broken nose must have affected his preparation. Very strong defensively and needed to be against Wilshere. 7

City fans are set to see full debuts for Adam Johnson and Patrick Vieira as Roberto Mancini rings the changes following the disastrous showing at Hull. A win is essential to get our bid for a Champions League place back on track.

Given – Will be bitterly disappointed at conceding three goals even if there was little he could do about any of them. 6

Richards – Got forward well and scored a fine goal. Question mark over the third Bolton goal when Ireland was the only City player trying to stop the cross. 6

City just about returned to their drawing ways after coming from behind three times and seeing Craig Bellamy controversially dismissed. The ten men nearly snatched a winner as Lescott and Robinho missed late chances, but that shouldn’t disguise a poor performance where Bolton created a host of chances.