Blackburn 1 Manchester City 0:Sven-Goran Eriksson's honeymoon period at Manchester City is well and truly over and the former England manager has to be dismayed by the sharp downturn in their level of performance. Indeed, they were fortunate not to suffer a heavier defeat in a game that featured two sendings-off.

Blackburn Rovers' Tugay Kerimoglu committed two bookable offences early in the second half, indiscretions that could have been the catalyst for a City comeback. Instead the visitors looked, for the first time this term, like a side in the embryonic stages of major restoration work. This was easily the worst performance of Eriksson's brief tenure, their disappointment compounded by the referee Mike Dean brandishing a second red card, in the direction of Richard Dunne.

That came 11 minutes after Tugay's dismissal but the loss of City's captain was not the decisive moment. The truth is that Blackburn were so superior it is feasible City would have lost even if they had retained a man advantage.

Blackburn's football was of the highest quality, penetrative and full of slick first-time passing. David Bentley and Morten Gamst Pedersen provided width and penetration, ably assisted by two overlapping full-backs in Brett Emerton and Stephen Warnock. Mark Hughes said afterwards that the man-of-the-match award could have gone to any of his players bar the goalkeeper Brad Friedel and one contender was certainly Roque Santa Cruz.

Dunne has forged an impenetrable partnership with Micah Richards but this was a difficult afternoon for City's centre-halves, both of whom were culpable for Benni McCarthy's goal.

First Christopher Samba got above Dunne to meet Bentley's corner and then Santa Cruz rose higher than Richards to bring a reaction save from Kasper Schmeichel. The ball rebounded to McCarthy, who directed his shot beyond City's goalkeeper.