Guardian:
Untouchable Cole lifts Chelsea out of a hole
Daniel Taylor at the City of Manchester Stadium
For long, uneasy spells even a man of Jose Mourinho's seemingly impregnable self-belief must have wondered whether he was about to suffer an uncomfortable sense of deja vu. Manchester City were a pebble in Mourinho's loafer last season and Chelsea had not managed a shot on target as the game swung into its final quarter of an hour. Then, out of nowhere, Joe Cole struck and Mourinho sprinted down the muddy touchline in his expensive suit. It was a goal which may be pivotal in the title race. The news of Birmingham City's equaliser against Manchester United had come through barely a minute earlier and when the night was done Chelsea's lead at the top of the Premiership, instead of being cut to seven points, had stretched to 11 points. That they did it without Frank Lampard, who was suffering from a virus, was testament to their obduracy on an evening when they racked up their seventh successive victory since losing at Old Trafford on November 6. The Premiership has waited a long time to discover how Chelsea would cope without a player Sir Alex Ferguson has described as a "freak" because of his apparent immunity to fatigue. Ferguson himself has floated the idea that Chelsea's season might be derailed if Lampard's good fortune with injuries were to run out but it now seems a straws-clutching gesture on the part of United's manager. If Lampard's absence posed the champions some searching questions, their retort was the massed huddle of celebrations after the final whistle. "Mentally it was a big test to play without Frank Lampard but the team's answer was fantastic," Mourinho said. "There are many great teams in Europe but you will not see anyone fight like my team. That's not the power of money; it's the power of human beings working together, always ready, from the first day of the season." Mourinho went on to describe Cole as "untouchable" and when he discussed the league table it was noticeable that he mentioned Liverpool more prominently than Manchester United. "We don't have to worry," he said. "Our rivals must not only win but wait for Chelsea's mistakes and we're very strong." He was entitled to be pleased because City, who have provided him with robust opposition since his arrival at Stamford Bridge, put up prolonged resistance on a night when even Stuart Pearce must have been tempted to wear gloves (he didn't). The home players threw themselves into every tackle, ran for every ball and matched their illustrious opponents for prolonged periods. "I don't like to glorify getting beaten," said Pearce, "but the players can walk out of the stadium with their heads held high." Chelsea's methodical build-up will certainly have done little to distress the Barcelona scouts in the VIP seats with February's Champions League ties on their mind. Pearce reflected on the opportunity, after 15 minutes, when Joey Barton's low shot was blocked by Petr Cech's feet. Yet Mourinho was equally justified in arguing that his side ought to have been awarded a first-half penalty when Sylvain Distin misjudged the trajectory of John Terry's long ball and allowed Didier Drogba a yard of space inside the penalty area. As Drogba turned towards goal he was caught by David James only for Uriah Rennie to deem that there had been no contact. Drogba's fall had been exaggerated, to say the least, and thereafter he took the pantomime-villain role vacated by Shaun Wright-Phillips, who suffered the ignominy of not even being on the bench against his former club. Drogba's every touch was booed and whistled, and there was more irritation etched across his face when he wasted Chelsea's solitary chance of the opening half. It had been an uninspiring period and Mourinho deserves acclaim for his boldness, 13 minutes into the second period, when he replaced Drogba and the ineffectual Damien Duff with Hernan Crespo and Arjen Robben. The double substitution invigorated Chelsea and in the 79th minute they finally emphasised the gulf between the two clubs. Even then it required a mistake from Sun Jihai to set them going. Robben led the charge and when James palmed away Eidur Gudjohnsen's deflected shot the ball flicked off Crespo's midriff and fell invitingly for Cole to score a goal which may be remembered with great fondness when Chelsea look back on their season
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Independent:
Manchester City 0 Chelsea 1: Cole's rich seam of form fires Chelsea
By Sam Wallace Published
Jose Mourinho described them as a "group of human beings ready for anything"; the rest may choose to describe Chelsea's achievements at the half-way stage of the Premiership season as a little closer to the super-human. No Frank Lampard last night for the first time in 164 Premiership matches and no goals before the 79th minute but, in the absence of one inspirational Englishman, Joe Cole assumed the role of match-winner once again. The chasing pack will read Chelsea's statistics and weep: only five points dropped in 19 matches, seven successive victories since defeat to Manchester United on 6 November and five wins by the 1-0 margin already. Manchester City are the only team to have held out against the might of Mourinho for more than two games, but should his side beat West Ham on Monday then the Portuguese coach can claim to have beaten every single Premiership side within 18 months of taking the job. "Untouchable," was how Mourinho described Cole's performance after Lampard was withdrawn at the very last moment. His name was on the team-sheet, and he participated in the warm-up, but the England midfielder eventually succumbed to a virus that ended a record-breaking run in the side that stretched back to October 2001. "Playing without Frank was a big test, he is there for 164 games and then a few minutes before kick-off you realise he is not there," Mourinho said. "The answer was magnificent." It was a match that, in terms of what it symbolised, seemed on a par with the epic defeat of Blackburn last February and it prompted one of Mourinho's grander defences of his club's ethos. "Almost all the great teams in Europe are on their holidays at the moment," he said. "You don't see the big stars fighting and playing like my team played. If you say this is the power of money, I don't agree. "It's the power of the group together, a group of human beings who have been together since the first day and are ready for everything. It is the power of a group of friends working together - it is not the power of money." There is the possibility that Liverpool, with their two games in hand, can cut Chelsea's lead to nine points but the second half of the season, Mourinho said, would be about his team "controlling the situation". "For the rest it is not just about winning, it is about Chelsea making mistakes," he added. "We are strong and we have more points than we did at this stage last season. We will play our matches and we don't need to worry about anyone else." For Manchester City their third defeat in four games was not, their manager Stuart Pearce said, the result of any lack of effort. In Joey Barton, City had arguably the game's outstanding player: he scraped a boot down Michael Essien's shin, slid straight through John Terry and bossed the centre of the midfield in the absence of Lampard. But City rarely came close to scoring. There was not even a place on the Chelsea bench for Shaun Wright-Phillips who, after his £21m signing from City this summer, was considered fourth choice by Mourinho among the wingers he has at his disposal. "You can think what you want but it was just a technical decision," the Chelsea manager said. "No dramas and nothing strange." But for Wright-Phillips it must have been difficult to take - even his younger brother Bradley was afforded a substitute's appearance by Pearce. City were lucky to escape on 23 minutes when Terry's long ball towards Didier Drogba was completely misjudged by Sylvain Distin who, after his disastrous performance against Wigan this week, seems to be enduring some kind of crisis. Drogba controlled the ball and, despite slipping, still beat Distin before nudging the ball past David James, who collided heavily with the striker. Drogba, as is his way, went down with the maximum dramatic effect but there could be no denying that James had stood in his way as he pursued a chance that would have given him a clear sight of goal. The decision looked to be a simple one, but with the referee Uriah Rennie in charge scarcely anything is straightforward and he awarded City a goal-kick. One year earlier, Mourinho's solution might have involved sacrificing Cole for a more direct attacking force but these days he has become increasingly reliant upon what the England winger can conjure up. Chelsea managed only their first shot on goal when the substitute Arjen Robben broke through on 76 minutes, but just moments later it was Cole who came up with the winner. City's defence had already endured one lapse, when Eidur Gudjohnsen's free-kick flashed unchecked across the box before the goal came on 79 minutes. Sun Jihai gave the ball to Robben on the right and he fed Gudjohnsen in the area. His shot deflected off Ben Thatcher, James palmed it out and when the ball dropped it fell to Cole, who poked it home. All his players, Mourinho said, had given "a big answer" - after this the response from the rest of the Premiership will have to be good.
Manchester City (4-4-1-1): James; Onouha, Dunne, Distin, Thatcher (Ireland, 88); Sinclair (Croft, 82), Barton, Sun Jihai, Vassell; Sibierski (B Wright-Phillips, 70); Cole. Substitutes not used: Sommeil, De Vlieger (gk), Jordan.
Chelsea (4-1-4-1): Cech; Geremi, Terry, Gallas, Del Horno; Makelele; J Cole, Gudjohnsen (Ferreira, 82), Essien, Duff (Robben, 58); Drogba (Crespo, 58). Substitutes not used: Cudicini (gk), Huth. Referee: U Rennie (Staffordshire)
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Telegraph:
Chelsea make room at the top
By Tim Rich
Manchester City (0) 0 Chelsea (0) 1
Chelsea will end their centenary year on New Year's Eve at Stamford Bridge and, should events go to form against Birmingham, their 38 games in 2005 will have yielded 101 points. Thus far, Manchester United have picked up 77 and Arsenal 71. Much more than words, these numbers are the reason Chelsea will retain their title well before May. This scarcely-deserved victory, taken alongside United's draw at St Andrew's, extended Chelsea's lead to 11 points at the halfway point of the season. Jose Mourinho's side have the ability - similar to that displayed by Sir Alex Ferguson's United teams in their pomp - of squeezing late victories from barren draws. They did so against Fulham on Boxing Day and, with 11 minutes remaining at Eastlands, they managed it once more. David James, who had not been required to make a save until the 76th minute, reacted well to parry Eidur Gudjohnsen's deflected cross but succeeded in directing it only into the path of Joe Cole, who had been easily Jose Mourinho's most effective performer and now scored his sixth goal of the season. It had been a dreadfully laboured display but it was one that yielded three more points and a seventh straight victory. "I know what sells, I know the image we have," Mourinho reflected. "But I don't think many teams would have fought like mine. All the great teams of Europe are on holiday now, not fighting like my teams. It is not the power of money that makes Chelsea, it is the power of a group - a group of friends." It may not have been a coincidence that the champions struggled but, for the first time since Sept 2001, Chelsea took the field in a Premiership match without Frank Lampard. His run of 164 consecutive games was ended by a virus that forced him to withdraw 10 minutes before the start. Shaun Wright-Phillips, however, did not even make the bench on what would have been his return to Eastlands, four months after leaving Manchester in return for £21 million. It may have been the unfamiliarity of being deprived of Lampard's energy at the heart of their midfield, but Chelsea responded with strange uncertainty on the ground where they suffered their only League defeat of last season. Their one real opportunity in the first half arrived when Didier Drogba appeared to be bundled over in the area by James, who had been exposed by Sylvain Distin's failure to deal with a routine long ball. It looked a penalty, but replays suggested that, although there had been some contact, Drogba had also dived. Generally, however, City seemed comfortable with what, to most sides in their position, would have appeared a mountainous task. However, last season they had taken four points from the champions and last night they deprived Chelsea of any real space, pressed their holding midfielders, Michael Essien and Claude Makelele, and in the first, plodding hour restricted them to a few uncharacteristic long balls. Before the hour was up, Mourinho had seen enough and replaced Drogba with the far more subtle talents of Hernan Crespo. Stuart Pearce must have reckoned that Mourinho's decision to employ Geremi as a makeshift right-back gave his side a weakness to probe, which he did by shifting Darius Vassell to City's left flank. It threatened to work after a quarter of an hour as Vassell found space and directed a cross which, though it missed Antoine Sibierski, its intended target, fell perfectly for Joey Barton. His shot was blocked by the boots of Petr Cech, whose goalkeeping had come in for rare criticism in the wake of the champions' narrow victory over Fulham on Boxing Day. Last night he displayed more of his usual composure.
Manchester City (4-4-2): James; Onouha, Dunne, Distin, Thatcher (Ireland 88); Sinclair (Croft 83), Barton, Sun Jihai, Vassell; Sibierski (Wright-Phillips 72), Cole. Subs: De Vlieger (g), Sommeil. Booked: Thatcher.
Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Cech, Geremi, Gallas, Terry, Del Horno; Makelele, Essien; Cole, Gudjohnsen (Ferreira 83), Duff (Robben 59); Drogba (Crespo 59). Subs: Cudicini (g), Huth. Referee: U Rennie (South Yorkshire).
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The Times
King Cole's merry old goal a lift for Chelsea
By Matt Hughes
Manchester City 0 Chelsea 1
JOSE MOURINHO has won most trophies in European football and more seem inevitable after a first win over Manchester City, who were threatening to become his bogey team, having taken four points from two Barclays Premiership matches last season. Handicapped by the absence of Frank Lampard, Chelsea looked like suffering another shut-out by Stuart Pearce's hard-working side last night, but Joe Cole popped up with a 79th-minute winner. There may be more exciting teams than Chelsea, but few can be as relentlessly efficient. Mourinho would not swap his collection of players with anyone and the statistics support this, with his side collecting 52 points from the 57 available this season. "It was a big test for the team from the mental point of view to play without Frank, especially as we only found out ten minutes before the game," Mourinho said. "The answer was magnificent. For me, defeat is the law of the game, the law of the championship, but after we lost at Manchester United there was no panic. I always say the best team is champion over 38 games." After holding out for so long, Pearce felt that his players were hard done by, but took solace from a spirited display. "With the endeavour they put in, we deserved something from the game," he said. "A 0-0 draw would have been a fair result and I'm disappointed for the players." It was fitting that Cole, Chelsea's best player for the past month, should score the goal that brought them the points, his seventh of the season. The England midfield player earned deserved praise from Mourinho, unlike Shaun Wright-Phillips, who was left in London. His New Year's resolution should be learning to keep possession of a football. "Joe at the moment is untouchable," Mourinho said. "He's fantastic in every aspect of the game. He's amazingly strong, controls the ball under pressure and is playing fantastic football." Having lost at Old Trafford this season, Chelsea were expecting a difficult encounter on the other side of the freezing city and their task became harder just before kick-off with the withdrawal of Lampard. The England midfield player was on the teamsheet but went down with a virus, ending a record run of 164 successive appearances stretching back to October 2001. The last time Chelsea played a league game without Lampard, they had just been knocked out of the Uefa Cup by Hapoel Tel Aviv. The disorientation showed as they struggled to impose themselves last night. Darius Vassell's cross from the left in the fifteenth minute found Trevor Sinclair on the opposite byline and he pulled the ball back to Joey Barton, whose low shot was saved by the legs of Petr Cech. Apart from the odd run by Cole, Chelsea were restricted to the physical threat of Didier Drogba, who toiled away like a carthorse, but the Ivory Coast striker should have been rewarded with a penalty. Sylvain Distin failed to deal with Asier Del Horno's ball from the left in the 23rd minute and responded by barging Drogba, who was further impeded by the diving David James. Uriah Rennie, though, chose to give City a free kick, without booking Drogba for diving. Drogba had another chance on the stroke of half-time, shooting over the bar after running on to a through-ball from Michael Essien, but City deserved to go in on level terms. The aerial ball to Drogba appeared to be Chelsea's best hope of breaking the deadlock in the second half, particularly as the unfortunate Distin endured an evening to forget. Cole supplied some excellent ammunition, but after Drogba headed an easy chance wide he was soon replaced by Hernan Crespo, with Arjen Robben coming on for Damien Duff. The Irishman accepted his fate with good grace, unlike Drogba, who stormed down the tunnel without looking at Mourinho. But, as usual, Mourinho's substitutes made the difference and Robben changed the game. The Dutchman's nimble footwork proved too much for both full backs and, after switching to the right, brought a good save from James before creating the winner. After a trademark slaloming run he picked out Eidur Gudjohnsen, whose shot was saved by James before Cole tapped in.
MANCHESTER CITY (4-4-2): D James N Onuoha, R Dunne, S Distin, B Thatcher (sub: S Ireland, 89min) T Sinclair (sub: L Croft, 83), J Barton, Sun Jihai, D Vassell A Cole, A Sibierski (sub: B Wright-Phillips, 71). Substitutes not used: D Sommeil, G de Vlieger. Booked: Thatcher, 77.
CHELSEA (4-3-3): P Cech Geremi, W Gallas, J Terry, A Del Horno M Essien, C Makelele, E Gudjohnsen (sub: P Ferreira, 83) J Cole, D Drogba (sub: H Crespo, 58), D Duff (sub: A Robben, 58).
Substitutes not used: C Cudicini, R Huth. Booked: Del Horno, 84. Referee: U Rennie.
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