Benarbia shines to open City floodgates

Manchester City 3 Walsall

Having seen his side score and concede 41 goals in their seven previous games, Kevin Keegan had asked for rather less breathless entertainment at Maine Road. One-nil, he suggested, would be a more desirable if distinctly un-Keegan-like scoreline.

These days, however, Manchester City do not deal in one-nils and three goals, all either inspired or converted by Paulo Wanchope, presented them with the most straightforward of victories, although had the Walsall keeper, Lee Harper, not turned away fierce drives from Stuart Pearce and Steve Howey and denied Shaun Goater with his boot, City would have kept up their average.

Keegan will have to try harder to lose the "Entertainers" tag that was first attached to his teams at Newcastle, although he could scarcely have been given an easier ride by a Walsall side which did not muster a single accurate attempt on goal in the entire evening.

Saddlers manager Ray Graydon identified City, Wolves and Coventry as the three clubs likeliest to win promotion to the Premiership, although his main concern is at the other end of the table. "This was a good team performance," said Keegan. "The type you need to keep putting in every week if you are to get out of this division."

The impact made by Ali Benarbia is straight from the Keegan school of footballing romanticism. Aged 32, the Algerian was one of a raft of players deemed surplus to requirements at Paris St-Germain and, according to the Manchester City manager, "simply dropped into our lap" with no fee required.

Having been given 35 minutes' worth of training to acclimatise to his new team-mates, he was voted man of the match on his debut against Birmingham and has now scored City's opening goal in his three subsequent matches. "He adds one thing to our team," observed a grateful Keegan, "and that is class."

Last night's goal came courtesy of Wanchope in the 24th minute. Hemmed in by defenders, the Costa Rican seemed about to trip over the ball when he wriggled free to unleash a rasping shot that struck the foot of the post. Benarbia was in precisely the right place to tuck away the ricochet.

It was a policy followed by Goater, who was perfectly positioned to snap up a rebound from a clearance that struck Wanchope's head 16 minutes later and fell at his fellow striker's feet. Goater, a mere six yards out and onside, had little difficulty in converting his 12th goal in what has already been an astonishingly profitable season.

Since Walsall are not the sort of side you would back to score three times in a match, let alone in the second half, the game was effectively decided in its 40th minute. Even the restored Richard Dunne, back in the City team after being dropped for missing training and not normally noted for his agility, managed to dribble into the area and rifle in a shot.

Having been involved in the first two, it seemed only right that Wanchope should score the the third, albeit from the penalty spot. It was a spot-kick he had won himself once Steve Chettle made a fateful lunge as the long-limbed striker began a trademark dribble, the kind that not even he knew where it might end.

Manchester City (3-5-2): Weaver, Wiekens, Howey, Pearce, Dunne, Benarbia (Horlock, 78), Etuhu, Tiatto, Granville (Shuker, 71), Goater (Huckerby, 71), Wanchope. Substitutes not used: Colosimo, Nash (gk).

Walsall (3-5-2): Harper, Brightwell, Barras (Tillson, 69), Chettle, Gadsby, Curtis, Bennett (Leitao, 79), Simpson, Aranalde (Matias, 87), Wrack, Byfield. Substitutes not used: Herivelto, Walker (gk).

Referee: R.Harris.

Attendance: 31,525