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Premier League, Loftus Road - Queens Park Rangers 0 Chelsea 0.

QPR and Chelsea played out a 0-0 stalemate at Loftus Road after Anton Ferdinand snubbed John Terry and Ashley Cole pre-match.

Chelsea's 100 per cent league record came to an end at the home of their West London rivals, where Ferdinand, Terry and Cole took centre-stage following last season's race allegations which culminated in a not guilty verdict for Terry in July.

QPR debutant Julio Cesar impressed in goal with a string of solid saves while Bobby Zamora had an effort cleared off the line in the second half after a horror back pass attempt by John Obi Mikel.

But a heated affair did not ultimately produce any goals and Roberto Di Matteo's side remain top of the league on 10 points despite victories for Manchester United and Arsenal elsewhere.

The Hoops, meanwhile, remain near the foot of the table, still without their first league win.

Before a ball had been kicked, the match was making headlines when Ferdinand opted not to shake the hands of either Terry or Cole during the pre-match ritual, which had been abandoned altogether the previous season when the clubs last met.

Words were had between centre-backs Terry and Ferdinand before the hostilities transitioned into the alleged centrepiece of the afternoon – the actual football match – in a tense and scrappy opening period.

Ramires and Ryan Bertrand both picked up first-half bookings as Rangers – managed by ex-Chelsea man Mark Hughes, settled into the game the quickest.

The lion’s share of the decent chances came the way of the European champions, however, with Cesar forced to make a pair of excellent blocks to deny first Eden Hazard and then Fernando Torres.

Fabio had a penalty claim waved away by referee Andre Marriner when he collided with David Luiz on the left-hand edge of the Chelsea box, before Hazard went down in the opposite area under pressure from Shaun Wright-Phillips, only to receive the same response.

The hosts lost two players early on to injury as Fabio and Andrew Johnson each pulled up with little over half an hour played, restricting their control of the tempo with the departure of two of their most creative players in the early stages.

A hotly-contested opening 10 minutes of the second half had little in the way of serious chances until home captain Park Ji-sung headed a delicious cross from Esteban Granero into the arms of Petr Cech.

Minutes later, a mistake from substitute Nedum Onuoha let Hazard in but his deft flick to put Torres in with a chance at goal was poorly controlled by the Spaniard.

With 13 minutes to go, that error was topped in a big way by Mikel when his back pass was underscored and Zamora pounced, only to blink first in the stand-off in front of goal with Cech, allowing the Czech to do enough to delay the striker.

By the time he pulled off a chance at goal, black shirts were back to block its path and a subsequent breakaway led to Victor Moses forcing another decent parry from Cesar in the former Wigan man’s cameo from the bench.

Four minutes from time, Hazard should have won the game for his side only to blast a point-blank opportunity over after Branislav Ivanovic cut inside from the right to find Moses, whose low cross found the Belgian 10 yards from goal with precision.

MAN OF THE MATCH

Julio Cesar (Queens Park Rangers) – Rob Green's autumn went from bad to worse as the former Inter Milan stopper made an impressive home debut for his new employers with a string of saves.

Manchester City went third in the table after beating Queens Park Rangers 3-1 at the Etihad Stadium in a match they made far harder than it needed to be.

The meeting between the two sides brought back memories of last season's final day 3-2 classic but City were hoping to avoid the need for such dramatics this time out.

Yaya Toure gave them an early lead and the champions proceeded to completely dominate the first half without being able to double their advantage.

Bobby Zamora then scored a scarcely deserved equaliser in the 59th minute for the visitors from West London but Edin Dzeko, making his first start since March, headed City back in front two minutes later.

City would have been expected to push on from there and kill off the game but instead they tired badly giving a previously laboured QPR side a chance of an unlikely point.

However, despite playing seven summer signings, QPR were similarly uninspired, and Carlos Tevez redirected a mis-hit Edin Dzeko shot into the net in stoppage time to wrap up the victory.

An indication of City's early domination was the fact that their opening goal came from what was already their seventh corner of the match in just the 16th minute.

Samir Nasri curled the corner to the back post where Tevez shot against Zamora – the ball then bounced out to Yaya Toure near the penalty spot and the Ivorian fired home the opener.

QPR were completely devoid of ambition in the first half and just sat back in numbers hoping that City wouldn't break them down.

Roberto Mancini's men had a number of chances but it was somehow only 1-0 at the break. The closest QPR actually came was a bizarre clearance from halfway back towards his own goal by Jack Rodwell that sailed just over.

The second-half followed a similar patter and Pablo Zabaleta was desperately unlucky not to score in the 52th minute when, after been slipped in by a cute David Silva pass, he curled a great effort off the underside of the crossbar.

Then QPR scored completely against the run of play in the 59th minute. Andy Johnson nicked David Silva in possession and ran into the box; he fired a shot on goal that took a deflection and Joe Hart did superbly well to save it, however, he could only put it into the path of Johnson's former Fulham team-mate Zamora who nodded home a header from two yards.

That seemed to wake up City though who had the lead again just two minutes later.

Tevez was again involved as he reacted quickly to a fizzed ball by Aleksandar Kolarov into the box to push the ball forward with his right foot before pulling back a cross with his left from the end-line that landed perfectly on Dzeko's head, allowing the big striker to nod home from close range.

However, after that City got sloppy again and seemed to tire badly. New signing Esteban Granero was having a decent game for QPR in midfield and the booked Kolarov was perhaps lucky to stay on the pitch after barging into Anton Ferdinand and then his replacement Nedum Onuoha.

QPR did create a couple of changes as City looked gassed but they were perhaps unlucky that their two best openings fell to centre back Ryan Nelsen who mis-hit one effort and couldn't get onto the end of another cross that Jolean Lescott had failed to deal with.

Instead it was City who would get the game's fourth goal, as Tevez scored his 50th Premier League goal when he redirected a poor effort from Dzeko past Rob Green.

It was fully deserved, as the Argentine had allowed Yaya Toure to feed the Bosnian by harassing the QPR defenders in possession.

It was again a stoppage time goal from an Argentine against QPR, but while it may not have had the drama of last season's meeting between the sides, and Sergio Aguero's heroics, three points are three points, and once again it was City who took the spoils.

Former Northern Ireland and QPR captain Alan McDonald has died at the age of 48.

McDonald collapsed suddenly while he was playing golf at the Temple Golf Club near Lisburn on Saturday morning.

The QPR stalwart won 52 caps for his country and was a member of Northern Ireland's World Cup side in 1986.

McDonald went on to manage Glentoran, winning the Irish League title in 2009, and also coached his country's under-21 side.

An Irish Football Association spokesman told Press Association Sport: "We are deeply shocked at the death of Alan, who won over 50 caps for Northern Ireland. To die at such a young age is terrible."

Former Northern Ireland manager Sammy McIlroy, a close friend and former team-mate of McDonald's, said: "I'm shell-shocked. Words can't even enter my head at the moment.

"Forty-eight is so young. Alan was always larger than life - during his career and after. I've just spoken to Norman Whiteside and he is devastated."