Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink will not score a simpler goal, but it may prove to be one of his most important.
Hasselbaink probably knew nothing about his goal, but he was in the right place to take advantage of a David Seaman slip on 33 minutes to tap in with his right foot from four yards, which put the Londoners back on top of the Premiership.
Seaman, 41, was slow to get to a whipped left byline cross by Adrian Mutu after Joe Cole fed the Romanian with an expert 25-yard pass.
From here, Chelsea looked to be taking over the match, but much credit to City who pulled themselves together and put Chelsea under tremendous pressure and could themselves unlucky not to have snatched a point.
The agility of under fire goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini saved Chelsea on 39 minutes when right-back Mario Melchiot lost possession, wide on the right.
City's Michael Tarnat's smashed in a first time cross which was met beautifully, on the head by Robbie Fowler. It had goal written all over it, except Cudicini launched to his right, and deflected the ball onto his upright.
"It was a world-class save," admitted City boss Kevin Keegan. "If that had gone in and made it 1-1, Who knows what the result might have been? "I feel sorry for my players, we finished well but Chelsea just edged it." City had most of the chances, starting with a sixth minute volley from David Sommeil which sailed over the Chelsea crossbar.
Chelsea did get the ball in the net on 29 minutes when Frank Lampard headed home from an angled pass from Jesper Gronkjaer. But he was adjudged to be offside.
Chelsea coach Claudio Ranieri was understandably happy with the result but pragmatic about the performance.
"Man City played very well," admitted the Italian. "It was not easy to play against them. But after taking only one point from the last two games, we needed the three points.
"We spent a lot of psychological energy against Lazio." But Ranieri is not altogether happy with his side:"We work like a team, but sometimes we lose the plot.
"Today we played well under pressure, the team was solid and we did not lose the plot."