Manchester City - 6 Bolton Wanderers - 2 Kevin Keegan is keeping the Manchester City supporters sweet as his side produce moments of breathtaking football. But keeping some of his players sweet could be another different matter entirely.

Summer signings Trevor Sinclair and Paul Bosvelt were not even on the bench on Saturday after starting in the UEFA Cup defeat of Lokeren. Eyal Berkovic was also discarded as Keegan dipped into his reserves of midfield talent.

Claudio Reyna and Joey Barton were restored to team - and City responded with a handsome victory.

Asked about the omissions of Sinclair and Bosvelt, Keegan said they were simply rested.

"Paul Bosvelt had a tough game in the week," said the City boss. "It was a hard place to play, Lokeren, and a tough pitch to play on. Trevor Sinclair had a dead leg. He declared himself fit but I didn't see the sense of risking him.

"On days like this when players are 90 per cent fit, I can say to them have a rest and let someone else have a go. That's how it is going to be this year. Players are going to be rested, and I mean rested."

City coasted home after a blistering late rally with Nicolas Anelka and Shaun Wright-Phillips both scoring twice. Sylvain Distin and Reyna also found the target with debut goals for the club.

On the downside, Wright-Phillips is facing a three-match ban after a shuddering challenge on Simon Charlton, which brought a straight red card from referee Steve Bennett. The 21-year-old midfielder had earlier been booked for whipping his shirt off as he celebrated his first goal.

Keegan believes Wright-Phillips can go on and make his mark as a goalscorer, and also win caps for his country.

"I see him being on course to play for England at some stage. He is learning quickly. The main reason I think he will get in an England squad and get a game is because he can play in so many different positions.

"You talk about the left side with England. Put Shaun on the left side, you get a bundle of energy, a lot of tricks and certainly a lot of commitment. He is also a goal threat. His finishing against Bolton was very good. As he gets older he will get more goals. He can be an 11, 12- goal a season player."

It was a devastating result for Bolton manager Sam Allardyce, who marked four years in charge yesterday, his 49th birthday.

He said: "I apologise to our fans because they are probably as shocked as I am. If I had been playing I would probably still have been fighting after the game with some of the defending I saw going on out there.

"We have to stay as a team whatever the situation, and when we went 2-1 down we stopped playing as a team and started playing as individuals.

"I was very disappointed in the reaction when we went behind. It happened against Manchester United and Portsmouth at the start of the season and I thought we had got rid of that problem.

"When you go out and chase a game like we did you are going to get picked off by the quality of players you find in the Premiership."