Manchester City stand at the top of the Premiership table for the first time in their history after Nicolas Anelka's late strike clinched a 3-2 win over Blackburn at Ewood Park.

Brad Friedel and David Seaman may be the best goalkeepers in the land but both were culpable on two occasions as a scrappy tussle ended in a fascinating trial of strength and guile before City finally shaded the contest.

City full-back Michael Tarnat began the scoring, and in sensational style with a blistering 40-yard free-kick, before a Trevor Sinclair own-goal saw Blackburn go level just before half-time.

Joey Barton grabbed the lead for the visitors again only for Lorenzo Amoruso to put Rovers on level terms once again, then Anelka struck with three minutes to go.

The opening goal arrived in the third minute after Martin Taylor fouled Antoine Sibierski. Tarnat stepped up to hammer a quite astonishing swerving free-kick which arrowed low into the corner of the net with Brad Friedel - showing he is human after all - only managing to get his fingertips to the ball when he should perhaps have done better.

Two minutes before the break Andy Cole had a 20-yard effort deflected wide, and from Brett Emerton's corner Trevor Sinclair headed into his own net.

Sun Jihai[L] challenges Steven Reid.

It was a bad goal to concede - Sinclair was unmarked and Seaman came for the ball without appearing to call for it and the winger headed it neatly over his keeper and into the net.

The visitors regained the lead when Barton broke through lacklustre challenges from Amoruso and Martin Taylor to find himself one-on-one with Friedel and finished calmly to the keeper's left.

Graeme Souness must have been fuming but his side hit back two minutes later. Emerton swung in another penetrating corner kick and Amoruso thumped home an emphatic header with Seaman once again caught in no-man's land.

As the clocked ticked down Blackburn pressed forward in search of a winner. Substitutes David Thompson and Matt Jansen combined for the striker to force Seaman into a scrambling save with a diving header, then Tugay missed by a whisker with a deflected effort.

But Anelka settled the game with three minutes to go, chasing down Amoruso's poor header before firing through Friedel's legs from the narrowest of angles.

Seaman pays tribute

Manchester City keeper David Seaman paid tribute to his team-mates after they secured a last-gasp winner against Blackburn having twice allowed the Ewood Park side to fight back from a goal down.

Nicolas Anelka slotted home the winner between Brad Friedel's legs in the dying seconds of the game after the home team had twice equalised.

And Seaman was delighted his team had secured three points away from home.

Sun Jihai battles for the ball with Steven Reid

'They put us under a lot of pressure and we've done really well to come here and win 3-2,' said the former Arsenal star.

The win took City to the top of the Premiership for the first time in the competition's history and Seaman was delighted to have given the Blues' fans something to sing about.

'It's great, it's a bit different,' he said. 'Those fans are fantastic - they create so much atmosphere and so much noise out there.'

Both managers admitted the game could have gone either way with a Trevor Sinclair own goal pulling Blackburn level after Michael Tarnat's opener.

Joey Barton restored City's lead only for Lorenzo Amoruso to level with a thumping header.

But Anelka capped a bad night for Friedel, who had let in the first goal when Tarnat's free-kick wrong-footed him in the first half, by shooting through the American international's legs from the tightest of angles.

City boss Kevin Keegan said: 'You had two teams that wanted to win it and when you've got two teams that want to win it you are going to get a good game of football.

'We just edged the game, but it was a great game.'

His Blackburn counterpart Graeme Souness said: 'It was a cracking game of good football - we stuck to our task and we looked like the team that was going to go on to win it.'

The former Liverpool chief also revealed that he has not been deterred in his wish to buy Rangers captain Barry Ferguson despite seeing an offer for the midfielder rebuffed.

'We're pursuing three different areas,' said Souness, who confirmed he was also keen to take on Markus Babbel and former Italy international Dino Baggio.

'We've made an offer for Barry Ferguson and that was turned down and we shall be going back there.'

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