Rampant Zola torments Keegan's troubled team

Manchester City 0 Chelsea 3

So much for Kevin Keegan's grand designs on a serious Premiership impact from his goal-happy First Division champions. As Chelsea recovered from their own mini-slump with three goals in the last 20 minutes, the City players who equalled the club record with their 108-goal title triumph last season were digesting the less palatable statistic of having failed to score in four consecutive matches. A run of six without a win left Keegan facing a mounting crisis only two months into the season.

As the manager had predicted, it was Gianfranco Zola who proved the architect of their undoing, the evergreen Italian emerging from 69 largely unnoticed minutes to score his seventh and eighth goals of the Premiership season before Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink added to City's frowns. If Bolton or Charlton win a point today, City will be in the bottom three.

Which, actually, would be rough on them. As the Chelsea manager, Claudio Ranieri, generously acknowledged, City deserved at least to score, even if not, in his opinion, to have won. "They hit the post and then our goalkeeper made two great saves," Ranieri said. "They [City] play very well and sometimes dominate games but at the moment they are unlucky." After their abject display at Southampton two weeks ago, Keegan had demanded an uplifting performance and in essence, he got one. City dominated the match until Zola, who had not been a threat hitherto, scored from a set-piece – a header, no less – after 69 minutes.

But the ball would not break for them, leaving Keegan to reflect on a "cruel league" for those clubs fortune does not favour.

"It is ironic that our three best performances – against Leeds, Liverpool and today – have all ended in 3-0 defeats," Keegan said with a wry smile. He confessed, however, to be less amused with referee Dermot Gallagher, although he refused to give full vent to his displeasure. "I'm close enough to a fine as it is," he said.

Two decisions by the Banbury official inside the first seven minutes irked him. Gallagher gave Marcel Desailly the benefit of the doubt when he seemed to impede Shaun Goater and then dismissed City's protests when Nicolas Anelka then went down inside the box with Graeme Le Saux at his heels. A red card followed by a penalty and the afternoon could have followed a much different route.

Eyal Berkovic, brilliant throughout, clipped the outside of Carlo Cudicini's right-hand post after a link with Goater and a lovely step-over by Ali Benarbia, setting the tone for the first half. Later in the half, Shaun Wright-Phillips dragged a shot narrowly wide after more clever play from Berkovic.

If Zola, whose threat Keegan had gone to great lengths to emphasise, had seemed only on the fringe of the action to that point, it was less down to City's defensive efficiency as Chelsea's lack of service to either of their front men. With his midfield sitting deep, Ranieri appeared to be favouring containment.

As the first hour elapsed, it was still working, although it took a fine one-handed save from Cudicini to deny Marc-Vivien Foé after another telling prompt from Berkovic.

But Keegan's fears were realised after 69 minutes. Cudicini pulled off another excellent stop to defy Anelka's powerful strike before Chelsea won a corner on the right. Le Saux's delivery was well rehearsed, the ball reaching Emmanuel Petit on the six-yard line and being flicked from there to the far post, where City made the mistake of leaving the big man unmarked. Zola, all 5ft 6in of him, headed home.

City had to throw everything forward if they were to salvage the draw their performance merited. Instead, they were punished savagely, Le Saux's ball over the top sent Zola clear to shoot left-footed past Peter Schmeichel, before Mario Melchiot supplied a similarly decisive pass for Hasselbaink to speed past Sun Jihai and add the third for a now rampant Chelsea.

Manchester City 0 Chelsea 3
Zola 69, 84, Hasselbaink 85

Half-time: 0-0 Attendance: 34,953