All run-of-the-mill stuff for a club who could find a crisis in paradise, and it was in keeping with their perverse nature that they showed both sides of their character in the first 20 minutes.They began like players who had just been introduced, barely able to make an accurate pass, but when Bolton's early promise amounted to very little they slowly emerged from their mediocrity and began to resemble the force that had comprehensively outplayed the old enemy from Old Trafford.At the hub of their enterprise was Berkovic, and it was he who prised open the Bolton defence with a delightful pass to Anelka. "It was a local derby, different to Manchester United, but presenting the same three points as United." There are few uneventful weeks at Maine Road but this match came after City had to publicly deny that Keegan had resigned. Consistency and Manchester City are strange bedfellows but pit them against the neighbours at Maine Road and a glint of efficiency comes into their eyes. The Dane then sent in a deep cross which Zola side-volleyed towards goal.

Having won back the ball, he fed Gronkjaer on the right wing. As is so often the case in these situations, the attacking team were almost caught on the break, but Kevin Phillips' snap-shot on the turn could not beat Carlo Cudicini.Ranieri had not done his old trick of making mass changes during the interval for some time, but though Chelsea were not poor in the opening period they lacked the necessary mettle in the midfield, which explains the withdrawal of both Jody Morris and De Lucas. Mario Melchiot then saw his back-post header saved as well, after leaping higher than everyone to meet Jesper Gronkjaer's cross Try as they might, Chelsea could not find a way through. That it never came owes more to the battling, rather than footballing, qualities of the visitors. "I know that we can always score a goal," the Italian manager said when asked whether his team could now push for the title "The important thing for us is that we do not concede. Indeed, it tells you everything that Chelsea's two centre-backs scored the first two goals. They would have got it but for Rufus Brevett's misfortune 14 minutes from the final whistle.Facundo Sava's own-goal consigned them to defeat at Hertha Berlin in midweek and this time it was the defender's turn as Dunn's clever flick released Duff and Yorke got an acrobatic foot to his cross.

He played it in for Cole, Dunn found Damien Duff, and Dwight Yorke was there to apply the finishing touch to an outstanding team goal, his first since the victory over Arsenal - Blackburn's last in the Premiership - five weeks ago.Fulham should have equalised before half-time when a move of equal quality ended with an incisive final ball from Sean Davis to Silvain Legwinski, but he managed to spoon his shot over from close range.A length-of-the-field counterattack from Davis via Lee Clark to Lewis Boa Morte could also have levelled the scores early in the second half, but Friedel was out quick to smother his shot. "But if you want total illumination on the job, it's up to us."He is an engagingly unstuffy man, with a sharp smile and a quick laugh – and skilled in the diplomat's art of seemingly taking a reporter into their innermost confidence while imparting no secrets. "When presidents and prime ministers speak, they cause a blinding flash of light," says Meyer. A mini-Whitehall toils away in an embassy that resembles a 1950s trade union headquarters, housing the biggest concentration of British representative firepower on Earth. If anything, the reverse is true – at least in this mighty diplomatic factory halfway up Massachusetts Avenue. When he leaves next March to take over the commission, he will have held the foreign service's most coveted and glamorous posting for longer than anyone since Sir Ronald Lindsay, envoy from 1930 to 1939.The ambassador's job, many say, has been short-circuited in this age of instant communication between leaders. I'll miss the sheer diversity of the place." Christopher Meyer arrived as ambassador in Washington on Halloween in 1997.