Nicolas Anelka struck twice for the Wanderers in the opening twenty five minutes of the first half to heap more misery on his former employers who had no reply throughout the rest of the game.

Bolton started the strongest of the two teams and it came as no surprise when Anelka opened the scoring in the eighth minute when finishing off a fine team move after exchanging passes with Kevin Nolan and Nicky Hunt.

Sixty seconds later City protested strongly to referee Mike Riley as they claimed that a Paul Dickov header from Ishmael Miller's left wing cross had gone over the goal line but replays later showed that the whole of the ball wasn't in the net.

Anelka scored what turned out to be the matchwinner just twenty five minutes in when confidently slotting the ball past his former team mate Nicky Weaver in the City goal.

Credit must go to Henrik Pedersen for his approach play in setting up the second goal, the experienced Dane was revelling at appearing in a more advanced role at the City of Manchester Stadium and Sam Allardyce's new tactics certainly paid off.

Wanderers keeper Jussi Jaaskelainen had little to do for the rest of the opening half and the same can perhaps be said for opposite number Weaver as Bolton seemed content to keep their two goal lead.

City midfielder Joey Barton stung the palms of Jaaskelainen in the early stages of the second half with a free kick but that was as close as the hosts came to bringing themselves back into the game.

Stuart Pearce introduced ex-Lazio man Ousmane Dabo and Greek forward Georgios Samaras but neither could make an impression for City who struggled to break their visitors down.

Bolton themselves made changes as youngster Ricardo Vaz-Te came on in place of the hardworking El-Hadji Diouf and there was also another five minute run out for Ricardo Gardner who entered the fray in place of Pedersen.

City appealed for two penalty decisions but referee Riley deemed that Wanderers defender Abdoulaye Meite was well within his rights to challenge the young City wide man Miller.

In the closing moments of the game City where reduced to ten men as Barton was sent off for a clumsy tackle on Abdoulaye Faye. Whilst the tigerish midfielder didn't catch the Bolton man the lunge itself was deemed to be dangerous play.

Bolton now face the prospect of two home games over the festive period starting with Newcastle United on Boxing Day and followed by Portsmouth some four days later..

Bolton Wanderers: Jussi Jaaskelainen, Nicky Hunt, Abdoulaye Faye, Abdoulaye Meite, Tal Ben-Haim, Kevin Nolan, Ivan Campo, Gary Speed, Henrik Pedersen (Ricardo Gardner), Nicolas Anelka, El-Hadji Diouf (Ricardo Vaz-Te)

Subs Not Used: Andranik Teimourian, Idan Tal, Ian Walker (GK)

Manchester City: Nicky Weaver, Nedum Onuoha, Richard Dunne, Sylvain Distin, Ben Thatcher (Ousmane Dabo), Hatem Trabelsi, Joey Barton, Stephen Ireland, Ishmael Miller, Darius Vassell, Paul Dickov (Georgios Samaras)

Subs Not Used: Stephen Jordan, DaMarcus Beasley, Andreas Isaksson (GK)

Referee:

Mike Riley

Attendance:

40,157

Booked:

Paul Dickov (Manchester City)

El-Hadji Diouf (Bolton)

Abdoulaye Faye (Bolton)

Nicky Hunt (Bolton)

Sent Off:

Joey Barton (Manchester City)

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