On Wednesday, everyone will discuss Man City’s 2-0 win over Bolton using words like routine and comfortable, so I’m going to use my platform to try to ward off an orgy of generalisation and condescension.

For 77 minutes Bolton were as good as Manchester City and the only difference between the two sides were a foolish penalty conceded by Paul Robinson, a perfect pass from Patrick Vieira and a powerful finish from Emmanuel Adebayor, and the proper nouns involved should tell you everything about the difference between the two teams on the night.

Adebayor's goal and Adam Johnson's run were the only tangible differences on the pitch, and the performance from Coyle's patchwork defence and reshuffled midfield should be enough to cause some ripples of optimism, despite the actual results he's had since he took over.

If Jack Wilshire's signing on loan was a statement from Owen Coyle about how he wanted his team to play, then what should we read into Matt Taylor's exile?

Taylor was Megson's crown jewel, a lung-bursting box-to-box midfielder who dived into challenges and hit the ball hard. He represented everything Megson wanted in midfielders, everything he saw in Fab Muamba and Tamir Cohen and Sean Davies. He wanted maximum effort, minimal mistakes and to capitalise on set pieces.

Taylor's form this season has been disappointing, but in an important away game, when a result would have been very welcome, Coyle made a fairly sizeable statement by opting for Wilshire in a four-man midfield. He wanted to attack.

For the 77 minutes Wilshire and Lee Chung-Yong were on the pitch, Bolton played good, cohesive football, and if they had had more quality around them than Johan Elmander and Tamir Cohen could provide, Shay Given could have had a busy night.

(Incidentally, Lee Chung-Yong is better than Adam Johnson, but good luck getting anybody to notice. If there's one thing more exciting than a sparkly new talent, it's a nice fat £9 million price tag.)

Jack Wilshire was exactly as advertised: menacing on the ball, even in his own half, comfortable all over the field and always had enough time on the ball to pick out a pass or jink past his man. Theo Walcott should be very worried.

As an audition for the rest of the season, for Coyle to demonstrate his plan going forward with Wilshire and without Gary Cahill, there was plenty to build on.