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Manchester City won a rare point away from home in the Premier League after a 1-1 draw with Fulham at Craven Cottage.

City striker Benjani opened the scoring early before Jimmy Bullard equalised for Fulham with his first league goal of the season after 27 minutes.

Fulham's third draw on the trot was not enough to propel them any higher than the 10th position they occupied heading into the weekend.

City's away form so far this season has been poor - Mark Hughes has seen his side register just one win on the road, a record that is largely to blame for their lowly standing in the league - but it took them just six minutes to take the lead at a sunny Craven Cottage.

In the absence of the injured Robinho and with Jo starting on the bench, it was left to Benjani to take full advantage of some slack Fulham marking, getting in behind John Pantsil and Aaron Hughes to head Pablo Zabaleta's precision cross past Joe Hart.

City could have grabbed a second soon after, but Stephen Ireland - this season so lethal when presented with chances in front of goal - conspired to drag his shot wide of the mark.

With City employing two defensive midfielders in Vincent Kompany and Dietmar Hamann, Fulham found it difficult to find a way through in the opening exchanges as their creative instincts were suffocated in a congested midfield.

But as the first half progressed, Fulham slowly came into the game and they were nearly rewarded in the 22nd minute when the pace of Andrew Johnson saw him reach a ball in the City box; his little dink on the turn clearly hit Richard Dunne's arm, but with neither a whistle from the referee nor a flag from his assistant, play went on.

Johnson's hardworking strike partner Bobby Zamora then saw a close range shot well blocked before City's back line was breached for the first and only time of the afternoon as the hosts found their equaliser.

Zamora was the architect, playing Bullard in on goal with a lovely reverse pass which had the visitors' defence chasing shadows. The sometime England squad member hesitated for a moment before firing low and hard past Hart, while the watching Fabio Capello admired the finish from the stands.

The goal gave Fulham further confidence and some their football during the remainder of the opening period was of a high quality, Bullard in particular beginning to find some joy down the right hand side.

Twice he was instrumental in moves that nearly resulted in a second goal; first his cross was laid off by Johnson for Clint Dempsey to fire disappointingly wide before another pinpoint cross found the American in the box. This time the header flew over the bar.

But City remained a danger on the break, a situation typified by Benjani just before half-time when the Zimbabwean was given too much time to turn and shoot narrowly wide from the edge of the box.

Soon after the break, the hosts forged two good chances to find a second, but twice Zamora failed to find the back of the net, first firing high, wide and not-so-handsome from Johnson's pass before shooting just wide, having been allowed time to turn on the edge of the box.

But neither chance was as clear cut as the one to fall Zamora's way on 68 minutes, after Bullard's well-struck free-kick had forced Hart into acrobatically putting the ball behind for a corner. From the dead ball, the hosts would surely have taken all three points had the striker opted to head past Hart from close range instead of stretching out a boot to get to the ball.

City also had chances of their own to snatch a winner during the second period, Zabaleta in particular enjoying some freedom on the right to get into several dangerous positions.

Twice the Argentina international was denied by good stops from Mark Schwarzer while in between those efforts, Kompany failed to find the target from close range when Benjani's flick-on from a corner found him somewhat unprepared six yards out. The ball hit his thigh and bounced away from the target.

With City showing little desire to go forward as time ran out, Fulham ended the game the stronger of the two sides, but despite some late pressure, the visitors held on for a point - just their sixth away from home this season.

Mike Hytner / Eurosport