I am slightly confused.... so, infinitesimally at some point p (=tangent space at p) we can always find locally inertial coordinates which put the metric in canonical diagonal form = diag(-1,1,1,1). And around the point p the first derivatives of the metric components g_ij vanish....
Question: do the first derivatives of the metric components vanish only at the point p or infinitesimally around the point p?
(If it is only the former, isn't this trivial as the metric in p is in canonical form?)