Manchester City 1 Blackburn Rovers 1: Kevin Keegan is not the first manager to wonder if Manchester City should come with a government health warning.

Joe Royle spoke of a "Cityitis" disease, and club secretary Bernard Halford recalls of Steve Coppell, "his suit when he arrived drowned him when he left".

Now, one fears, it is Keegan's turn. Keegan is too self-critical, too sensitive and too impulsive to handle crises well, and City's worst run since the start of their 1995-96 relegation season is likely to get worse before it gets better.

By the time they resume Premiership duties on February 1st it will have been three months since their last league win. The opposition will be Arsenal at Highbury, beginning a month that also includes confrontations with Chelsea and Liverpool.

No wonder Keegan looked so fed up with the routine of explaining another missed opportunity, fed up with making excuses for his players and, most of all, fed up with answering questions about his future.

This was a prosaic draw, churned out by what Graeme Souness described as "two very nervous teams", though in terms of chances created the home side are entitled to reflect they should probably have emerged with their first league win in 11 games.

Keegan does himself no favours. "I'm enough of a realist to know two or three more bad results and my job is on the line," he said in his programme notes.

Blackburn had not managed a serious attempt at goal by the time Nicolas Anelka opened the scoring on 50 minutes with a cute free-kick curled around the defensive wall that caught Brad Friedel badly positioned and unsighted.

But it was only five minutes before the hosts' vulnerabilities were exposed. Richard Dunne missed what should have been a routine clearance when Andy Cole flicked on Lucas Neill's up-and-under, Dwight Yorke poked the ball to Garry Flitcroft and the former City player beat David James from six yards.

James' record so far at City reads one shot, one goal.