Of all the preposterous and fanciful predictions that were made before this match, everything from handshake boycotts to Wayne Bridge coming on as a substitute after two minutes, none featured Chelsea finishing with nine men and being comfortably beaten by Manchester City.

The visitors just did not appear to have that result in them, yet it is important to stress that Chelsea were falling to their first home defeat of the season even before indiscipline began to cost them players. City were winning 2-1 by the time Juliano Belletti was sent off after conceding the penalty that gave them a third. Only the final goal, Bellamy’s second after Michael Ballack had left the field for a second yellow after a foul on Carlos Tevez, was a result of Chelsea being undermanned at the back. To their credit Chelsea’s nine men pulled a goal back at the end with a penalty of their own after Nicolas Anelka had been brought down, but by then it was a face-saving exercise.

An unbelievably uneventful first 40 minutes was inevitably likened to a Serie A contest, given the nationalities of the two managers, and it was beginning to look as if Wayne Bridge snubbing John Terry’s proffered hand before kick-off might have been all the first half had to offer until two goals arrived together on the stroke of the interval.

First Joe Cole played in Frank Lampard with a measured pass into the area, picking up the midfielder’s diagonal run and enabling Lampard to stroke the ball past Shay Given and in off a post without fully looking up to check the goalkeeper’s position. Having done most of the attacking Chelsea were just about worth their lead, and though Cole must have been expecting to be supplying Didier Drogba and Anelka with ammunition from his position just behind the front two, City found they had neglected the threat of Lampard joining the attack from midfield.

Three minutes later, however, City were unexpectedly back in the game, finding a way through Henrique Hilário on the first occasion they managed to put him to the test. Chelsea were on the attack as normal time drew to a close, and after Given saved from Cole a hoofed clearance from Bridge was inadvertently helped into Tevez’s path by a header from Mikel John Obi. Using that bit of good fortune to his advantage, Tevez beat first Terry then Ricardo Carvalho, and though he was hampered by Terry’s attempt at recovery when he came to shoot so that his effort limped almost apologetically across the line, he still placed it well enough to beat Hilário’s comically despairing dive.

If the Chelsea goalkeeper was at fault for the equaliser, his positional shortcomings were even more evident when City took the lead early in the second half. Launching a swift counter-attack, Gareth Barry fed the ball to Bellamy on half way, for the winger to take on and beat Mikel for pace down the left and find the far corner from a narrow angle with a low shot that the goalkeeper allowed across him. At least Hilário could not be blamed for City’s third. After Belletti had attempted to atone for being dispossessed by Barry by climbing all over the midfielder, conceding a penalty and been sent off as the last defender, the goalkeeper had no chance of keeping out Tevez’s fiercely struck shot from the spot.

Premier LeagueChelseaManchester CityPaul Wilsonguardian.co.uk