Guardian:
Chelsea make statement of intent by ending Manchester City's home run
Daniel Taylor at the Etihad Stadium
Chelsea have just reminded the Premier League, with a sharp dig in the ribs, that they have not forgotten what it takes to be champions. José Mourinho's team played as though affronted by the suggestion they would not dare to take on Manchester City at their own game and, in the process, there was a peacock-like spreading of feathers from the team in the darker shade of blue.
They won through Branislav Ivanovic's first-half goal but could also reflect on three other occasions when they struck the woodwork, alongside a clutch of other opportunities to emphasise their superiority. City, in stark contrast, looked like a side that had forgotten they had scored four goals or more on 14 different occasions this season.
They badly missed Sergio Agüero and Fernandinho but their shortcomings were considerable and a jolting night has heavy consequences for Manuel Pellegrini's side. Chelsea are now level on points, two behind Arsenal at the top, and the manner of the win left the clear sense that Mourinho's team have the togetherness, ambition and manager to last the course.
Mourinho made his own point with the adventure of his team. The first cries of "he's parking the bus" rained down inside the opening minutes. After half an hour it was "you're worse than Allardyce." Yet it quickly became evident that Chelsea would not restrict themselves to ploys of conservatism. They defended with supreme organisation and togetherness, with John Terry and Gary Cahill making immense contributions, but they also counter-attacked with great purpose and the taunts felt incongruous to how the match was actually shaping. Anyone who takes the lazy option and smears Mourinho's teams as routinely dour and unimaginative should be shown the footage of this match.
Chelsea's manager is also entitled to think his team could have made it easier for themselves. Cahill's header, direct from a corner, struck the post. Nemanja Matic, so influential in midfield, belted a 30-yard shot against the joint of crossbar and post and, at the other end, Samuel Eto'o hit the same part of the frame with a chance to make it 2-0 just before half-time. Chelsea could also look back at one opportunity when they broke, four on one, from deep inside their own half and Ramires could not beat Joe Hart with the final effort. Hart showed the assurance of old but few other players from Pellegrini's ranks played with any distinction. Yaya Touré did well in the opening half an hour but faded and allowed too much space behind him.
The sense that everything was not quite right could be gauged by the early show of anger Vincent Kompany directed towards Matija Nastasic after they both went for the same ball. Kompany's war cry was a warning that this was not a night for anyone to lose even a flicker of concentration but that was precisely what happened. Martín Demichelis, deputising for Fernandinho in midfield, was a danger to his own team at times, lacking control and often reckless with his decision-making. The Argentinian, bumped forward from centre-half, is in danger of becoming his team's most vulnerable point.
Mourinho had left out Oscar but his attacking quartet created all sorts of problems. Eden Hazard, in keeping with his recent form, dazzled on the ball and was probably the pick of the bunch, swapping flanks and taking turns to torment Pablo Zabaleta and Aleksandar Kolarov. Willian and Ramires played with high energy and movement behind Samuel Eto'o.
The midfield contest was won, ultimately, by Matic and David Luiz and it was strange to hear Pellegrini say his team had deserved "at least" a draw. Pellegrini also felt Hazard was "not crucial", despite all the evidence that left Mourinho acclaiming the Belgian as short of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi but now "the best young player in the world". It was Hazard's cut-back, after ghosting past Zabaleta, that led to Eto'o driving his shot against the woodwork and he was also instrumental in the goal, drifting from left to right and neatly playing in Ramires for the first chance. Kompany charged down the shot but the follow-up effort, off Ivanovic's left boot, was a peach, arrowing its way diagonally into the bottom corner. Pellegrini was willing to admit it was a "beautiful" finish.
It was a night when Eto'o had his big-game head on and Matic showed why Chelsea had brought him back from Benfica. Willian justified his selection ahead of Oscar and, in defence, Terry demonstrated why Mourinho says he is currently the best centre-half in the league. Álvaro Negredo was not fully fit, to give him his due, but was taken off 11 minutes into the second half, whereas Edin Dzeko rarely troubled the opposition defence. Ivanovic was at his combative best and César Azpilicueta's performance made it a little clearer why Mourinho now prefers him to Ashley Cole.
David Silva's 73rd-minute free-kick required Cech to make a stretching save and there was another in the final exchanges to deny Stevan Jovetic, Negredo's replacement. Overall though, City did not have anything like their usual cohesion or impetus. Nastasic was grateful for the referee Mike Dean's leniency after pulling down Oscar, a late substitute, and the crowd were flat and jumpy. City had scored 72 times in their previous 18 home games but maybe there has been so much focus on that it has been overlooked that Chelsea have the best defensive statistics in the land. This was the night they supplied the hard evidence.
It was the first time City have not scored on their own ground in 62 games stretching back to November 2010 and absolutely nobody believed Mourinho when he said his team had no chance of winning the league before nominating Arsenal as his favourites. "Two horses and a little horse," he said of the title race. "A little horse who needs milk and to learn how to jump." But the jockey isn't half bad.
http://www.theguardian.com/football/gallery/2014/feb/03/manchester-city-chelsea-in-pictures
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Independent:
Manchester City 0 Chelsea 1
Off-colour City sent reeling by masterful Jose Mourinho
Sam Wallace
The plan was perfect, its execution flawless and, to amend a phrase from the man who orchestrated victory for Chelsea, this was the ultimate in 21st century football.
Jose Mourinho has pulled off a few tricks in his career; he has bullied and cajoled, intimidated and bluffed but when the pressure is on he really does know how to win a big game. Tonight, his Chelsea team beat the side who are on course to be the most prolific goalscorers in Premier League history and in doing so prevented them from scoring in a league game for the first time since November 2010.
What seemed inevitable 24 hours ago, that City always find a way through, is now no longer the certainty it once was after Branislav Ivanovic’s goal won the game for Chelsea. To be fair to Mourinho he has been defying the odds for years: winning titles against Manchester United and Barcelona, eliminating the latter in the Champions League. Victories like these are the kind of wins he has secured time and again with the customary ingenuity.
There are some who will always point to the resources at Mourinho’s disposal and say that he should be able to accomplish these kind of results, but even so it takes a certain kind of football mind to be able to adapt the way he did tonight. And it opens up a whole new front in the title race which is now led by Arsenal, two points in front of City and Chelsea who are divided by goal difference into second and third respectively.
It was the kind of night that did not require one of those unorthodox post-match press conferences from Mourinho to make it a memorable occasion, but he laid one on anyway. He claimed that Billy McCulloch, the long-serving masseur, had given the team-talk “all in Scottish, I didn’t understand a word”. He also advanced the theory that if it was a three-horse race then Chelsea were a “little horse, that needs to drink milk and learn how to jump”.
He is not to everyone’s tastes. But there can be no arguing with the quality of the performance from the winning side last night.
Yes, Chelsea had to hang on at the end at times, but that was inevitable although the figurative bus was never truly parked. Not when City only mustered their first meaningful shot on target with a David Silva free-kick that Petr Cech pushed away with 17 minutes of the game remaining. Instead, a marvellous performance in midfield from David Luiz and Nemanja Matic kept City at arm’s length for all but the closing stages.
In defence, Gary Cahill was another contender for Chelsea’s best player. That was just edged by Eden Hazard who tormented City in the first half and the start of the second and was a key figure in the goal Ivanovic scored just after the half hour. Quite simply, City’s big players did not get close to the levels that those in the blue shirts of Chelsea attained.
The away fans kept in the ground after the game sang “Boring, boring Chelsea”, a nod to the stick Mourinho had taken from the home fans at the start of the game about his “s**** football”. By the end, there was no denying that Mourinho won the night all hands down. He got it right from start to finish: from the pre-match goading and on through the team selection and the tactics. He approaches the FA Cup tie with City a week on Saturday having beaten them twice in the league.
As for Manuel Pellegrini there was an element of denial about his refusal to accept his side’s ineffectiveness in midfield. An injury to Fernandinho in training on Sunday that meant the City manager chose to improvise with his old Argentinian warhorse Martin Demichelis in the centre.
Manchester City 0 Chelsea 1: Five things we learnt at the Etihad: Hazard is now ‘top player’; Demichelis could cost Pellegrini dear; Matic looks a class act; Stronger players than Mata; Chelsea are in the running
Unfortunately for Demichelis, at times in the first half he was the proverbial shire horse sent out on the gallops with the chasers. The margins are so fine in these kind of games, when every shortcoming is exposed ruthlessly and every match-up finely balanced. He was found wanting. Chelsea absorbed all the City attacks they could – which was by no means all of them - and then hit City hard on the counter.
It was in those moments that Demichelis was buffeted. Not least when he was sold short by a pass on 27 minutes and having just beaten Willian to the ball was then forced to turn and chase the Brazilian after it was then played in behind him. Matic’s pass sent Chelsea forward – four attackers on one defender - and Willian’s lay-off left to Ramires should really have been converted.
Instead, Ramires’ shot was saved by Joe Hart and the thought occurred that another chance that good might not come Chelsea’s way for a while. Mourinho jabbed the air in frustration. Yet, as it turned out, Chelsea created three more by half-time and scored from one of them.
Mourinho picked a 4-2-3-1 formation with Luiz and Matic the big physical midfield presence to protect the back four from the running of Yaya Toure. The golden boy at No 10, Oscar, was stood down for the night in favour of the energy of Ramires, who joined Willian and Hazard in the attacking three. Hazard is the one man who gets some free rein from Mourinho – although not too much – and it was he who was central to the goal.
Having started slowly, City were dominant in the game by the 20-minute mark. Toure clipped one over the bar and then, on 18 minutes, got round Cesar Azpilicueta and cut the ball back for Silva who unaccountably struck the ball wide. At that moment it felt like a matter of time before the home team would score but the goal never came, and Chelsea edged their way back in.
Their goal on 32 minutes was begun by Hazard, cutting in on his right foot from the left and getting the ball back from Ivanovic to turn it back to Ramires in the area. On that occasion Ramires should have scored but Vincent Kompany made a fine block. The ball dropped to Ivanovic on the right and he struck a beautiful left-footed shot across Hart and into the far corner.
Hazard made another chance for Ramires with a minute to play until half-time and he hit the post. By which time City were looking uncharacteristically ragged and the tension among the home support was beginning to tell.
That anxiety was not helped in the second half as Chelsea exerted their grip on the game, particularly in midfield where Pellegrini seemed reluctant to make changes. He later said that James Milner was not fully fit. He brought off Alvaro Negredo ten minutes after the break, an unremarkable performance from him, in favour of Stevan Jovetic.
They had to defend when the moment demanded it, never more so than when Cahill hooked the ball out the area when Silva recycled a missed opportunity from the left-side. This was an excellent performance from the Englishman who moments later had hit the post with a header from a corner, starting his run outward from the goal-line and twisting as he jumped to head the ball goalwards.
Until the last 20 minutes, when City stepped up their efforts, they struggled to get to grips with the task facing them. They had been confounded in the early stages of the second half by the running of Hazard whose confidence was boundless when he had the ball.
After Silva’s free kick was saved by Cech he was obliged to make another good stop from Jovetic in the closing stages. Just before then Mourinho felt that Matija Nastastic should have been sent off for a foul on substitute Oscar on the basis it was the denial of an obvious goalscoring opportunity. It was one of the few things that did not go his way.
Match details
Goal: Ivanovic 32
Manchester City (4-4-2): Hart; Zabaleta, Kompany, Nastasic, Kolarov; Navas, Toure, Demichelis, Silva; Dzeko, Negredo.
Subs: Negredo/Jovetic 55
Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Cech; Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta; Luiz, Matic; Ramires, Willian, Hazard; Eto’o.
Subs: Eto’o/Oscar 83, Willian/Mikel 90, Hazard/Ba 90
Booked: Manchester City Demichelis, Kolarov, Nastasic Chelsea Ivanovic, Matic, Willian
Man of the match: Hazard
Rating: 7
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Telegraph:
Manchester City 0 Chelsea 1
Henry Winter
Who needs to park the bus when you’ve got the coach? Jose Mourinho’s tactical mastery won this match, instilling in his players the right mindset and game-plan to shred Manchester City’s 100 per cent home record in the Premier League. One-nil to the Special One.
Mourinho is so adroit at devising the right strategy for the major challenges, finding a way to draw at Arsenal and Manchester United, vanquish United at home and defeat City at home and now, deservedly, away.
Branislav Ivanovic drilled in the decisive goal, Eden Hazard was man of the match and Nemanja Matic was exceptional in midfield.
Gary Cahill and John Terry were so redoubtable a combination at centre half that there will inevitably be calls for Roy Hodgson to negotiate an international return for Terry.
That might require plenty of work to get all of Terry’s baggage through the England dressing-room door, and he would face a suspension under FA Code of Conduct rules, but the point remains that Terry has been revitalised by Mourinho.
As for claims that they might be over-defensive, Chelsea hit the woodwork three times. There was
no parked bus by Chelsea; Mourinho left the handbrake off and it rolled down and over City in the first half. They defended in numbers, hunted the ball in packs, pressing high, and also countered in numbers, pouring forward.
The Mourinho show continued afterwards, when he was in magnificent, smiling form as he reflected on the game, again playing down Chelsea’s chances of pipping City and Arsenal to the Premier League title. In assessing the title race, Mourinho compared Chelsea to a “little horse” which still needed more training.
Ignoring that this was the club of Paul Furlong, Mourinho has already turned them into thoroughbreds, particularly the likes of Hazard, who is fast galloping towards the very highest levels of the game.
Mourinho has also made Willian a more consistent force. Chelsea’s defence echoes the great Mourinho back lines, containing some of the indomitability of The Wall at Inter Milan, Walter Samuel. Terry and Cahill kept blocking, kept intercepting.
They had a hunger for this, a game-plan too, speedily reaching out for the jugular in a fascinating match. Chelsea were helped by City missing the injured Sergio Agüero and Fernandinho while Alvaro Negredo was not fully fit.
Chelsea were also assisted by Manuel Pellegrini’s decision to start Martin Demichelis in central midfield where his slowness in starting moves and dealing with Chelsea surges was highlighted throughout. Why James Milner not start?
Mourinho’s players were working so hard, their tone set by the coach himself who leapt around the technical area, commanding plenty of abuse from the neighbouring City fans. “Jose Mourinho, your football is se,” chanted the locals. Matching their players for rapidity of thought, Chelsea supporters retorted with: “Jose Mourinho, he’s won more than you.”
Twice a Champions League winner, Mourinho applauded the industry and tactical discipline of his players, saluting Matic as he ushered David Silva away from goal. He clapped as the outstanding Hazard tore upfield, running at and past Pablo Zabaleta.
The Belgian also tracked back tirelessly, delivering a commanding all-round display. Anyone seeking Mourinho’s motivational strengths made flesh need only admire the contributions of Hazard. Chelsea fans recognised it throughout, chanting his name.
Hazard graced this pulsating encounter, a strong advertisement for the Premier League, although rather less for the national team with more Serbs than English (4-3).
City had chances. Yaya Touré shot over and also linked well with the flitting Spanish firefly that Silva but they failed to break through the thick blue line.
Mourinho’s chosen ones were defending with organisation and concentration, expertly soaking up the pressure, looking to unreel their punches on the counter.
After 27 minutes, Matic found Willian and suddenly it was four on two but Ramires’s attempt to curl the ball around Joe Hart was anticipated well by the England international.
The attention was immediately dragged down the other end, Edin Dzeko and Silva combining before Matic, arms tucked behind his back, blocked Jesús Navas’s shot.
Back the game went, flowing down the other end, leading to Chelsea’s 32nd-minute goal. Hazard, inevitably, played a part, cutting the ball in to Ramires, whose shot was blocked by Vincent Kompany.
Out of nowhere, Ivanovic stormed on to the loose ball, powering it left-footed past Hart. Ivanovic ran away, pretending to wash his hair, seemingly mimicking Hart’s shampoo endorsement.
Chelsea could have added more either side of the break. Running on to a Hazard cross from the left, Samuel Eto’o hit the bar as the visiting fans sang “boring, boring Chelsea”. Their spirits nearly lifted even higher shortly into the second period when Matic let fly from range, almost snapping the post.
Chelsea struck the upright again after 67 minutes. Willian curled over a corner, and Cahill rose strongly, heading against the post. It seemed to stir City and Cahill was soon demonstrating his defensive qualities. First he blocked a shot from Aleksandar Kolarov shot, then cleared a Navas cross before sliding in to divert for a Kolarov ball for a corner.
Willed on by their fans, City attacked and attacked, looking for hope from Silva. Touré won a soft free kick off Willian, the Ivorian having looked to have fouled the Brazilian. Silva took the free kick left-footed, lifting it over the four-man wall and seemingly heading for the top corner.
Petr Cech stretched out his left hand and nudged the ball over. Kolarov then drilled the ball across from the left, placing it perfectly for the run of Silva, but the Spaniard shot wide.
Chelsea remained a threat, particularly from set pieces. With 13 minutes remaining in the match, Willian delivered another corner from the right and the movement of Cahill was again a menace, setting up a chance for Terry but Hart saved.
There was a sense of gathering despair in City’s moves.
Touré clipped the ball towards the far post towards Jovetic but Ivanovic dispossessed him. Matic calmly intercepted a Dzeko cross. Cesar Azpilicueta headed clear from Kolarov’s shot.
Then Oscar turned Nastasic on the halfway line, being clearly pulled back. Mike Dean, the referee who handled a high-speed, high-stakes game well, ruled that the offence was too far out and pulled out only yellow.
Mourinho was incensed, demanding a sending-off but the Portuguese had the last laugh, the points, the reward for a tactical masterclass.
==============
Times:
Ivanovic puts final touch on Mourinho masterpiece to close gap
Manchester City 0 Chelsea 1
Oliver Kay
This was one of those evenings when the hype surrounding José Mourinho feels entirely justified. It was a triumph of spirit and organisation that blew the Barclays Premier League title race wide open last night as Chelsea not only underlined their own credentials but exposed the hidden chinks in Manchester City’s armour.
Sometimes it feels wrong to portray Mourinho as being so central to the Chelsea story, particularly when they have individuals performing as well as Eden Hazard, John Terry, Gary Cahill and Nemanja Matic did last night, but it was a performance that bore their manager’s hallmark — a team playing and winning with hearts and minds, frustrating City at one end of the pitch and picking them off at the other.
Branislav Ivanovic scored the only goal of the game, an improbable left-foot shot that flew past Joe Hart, but it says everything about Chelsea’s display that they could feasibly have won by a greater margin. It is only six days since Tim Sherwood said, after seeing his Tottenham Hotspur team beaten 5-1 at White Hart Lane, that City were playing football from “a different planet”, but they were brought down to earth with a bump by Chelsea’s blend of resilience and intelligence.
Having taken the lead in the first half, Chelsea struck the frame of the City goal on three occasions through Samuel Eto’o, Matic and Cahill. City started and finished the game as if they meant business, but for long periods in between they seemed flummoxed by Chelsea’s utter refusal to succumb to the fate suffered by every other visiting team in the Premier League this season.
Defending valiantly, controlling midfield — where, in the absence of Fernandinho, City saw Yaya Touré and Martín Demichelis struggle against Matic and David Luiz — and counter-attacking incisively, Chelsea ensured that the match was played on their terms, which meant precisely the terms that their manager demanded.
Mourinho said in September that he disliked the football he had seen from Chelsea last season, talking sniffily about Rafael Benítez’s tendency to play David Luiz in midfield and Ramires on the right wing. It is about more than mere positional deployment, though; on this occasion, with Luiz joining Nemanja Matic in midfield while Ramires reverted to the right, Chelsea performed with an intention to do far more than neutralise City’s threat.
The first 15 minutes or so were tough for Chelsea. City started out at a fearsome pace, with Yaya Touré giving the impression that he was ready to run the midfield in Fernandinho’s absence. A typical driving run took Touré into the Chelsea penalty area, behind Matic, in the eighteenth minute, when his cross was flicked just beyond the far post by David Silva. Before that, he had sprayed a first-time pass out to Aleksandar Kolarov and been inches away from getting on the end of the full back’s excellent cross.
These days, though, Touré is a player who is far less comfortable when forced on to the back foot. It is one thing to leave the legwork to Fernandinho, who is blessed with astonishing energy and an ability to link play as well as break it up, but it seemed irresponsible to leave Demichelis as he did at times in the first half.
Chelsea’s players sensed that, as their manager had told them, there was space to exploit on the counter-attack. In the 27th minute, Demichelis, over-exposed by Álvaro Negredo’s poor pass, won the ball from Willian, but Matic’s first-time pass left Chelsea with four players against City’s one as they approached the penalty area. Willian slipped the ball through for Ramires, but Hart made a fine save.
For City, it proved a temporary reprieve. Five minutes later, Hazard dribbled infield from the left wing, exchanged passes with Ivanovic and found him on the right of the City penalty area. Hazard picked out Ramires, whose shot was blocked by Vincent Kompany, and when the ball ran loose, Ivanovic struck an excellent left-foot shot from the edge of the penalty area that flew into the bottom right-hand corner of Hart’s goal.
City looked rattled. Demichelis and Kolarov were booked in quick succession for fouls, as had been Ivanovic and Matic, but more disconcerting for Pellegrini was the uncertainty in his team’s defending. Hazard’s influence was growing . He sent Hart sprawling to make a save before gliding away from Zabaleta and picking out the unmarked Eto’o, who sent his shot against the crossbar.
Half-time gave City’s players the opportunity to regroup , but even though Touré dropped a little deeper in the second half, the pattern continued. Kolarov gave the ball away to Luiz, who crossed to Willian, whose shot was deflected wide by Zabaleta. Matic let fly with a 25-yard shot that beat Hart but hit the outside of a post. Midway through the second half, Chelsea hit a post again, with Gary Cahill unlucky after beating Touré to Willian’s corner.
Pellegrini knew he had to take change something, with Negredo his surprising choice to make way for Stefan Jovetic, which allowed Silva to operate in a more central role. Improvement was minimal at first, but Silva tested Petr Cech from a free kick before shooting wide.
It was better from City, but it was nothing like enough to break Chelsea’s resistance. With four minutes remaining, Matija Nastastic misjudged a bouncing ball on the halfway line and, in desperation, tugged Oscar’s shirt as the Chelsea substitute threatened to race clear. Mourinho and his players demanded that Mike Dean showed the red card. Dean responded with a yellow. Mourinho was apoplectic.
One can only imagine Mourinho’s reaction had Cech not saved from Jovetic in stoppage time and had Nastasic then not miskicked when opportunity knocked with almost the last kick of the game. A City equaliser would have been an injustice. Chelsea were more than worthy winners.
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Mail:
Manchester City 0-1 Chelsea: Super Bran! Ivanovic strike sinks Pellegrini's men and keeps Jose in the title hunt
By Martin Samuel
He got everything right. The team, the strategy, the tempo, the mood. He knew the stakes, he knew how to win, he knew when to risk, when to gamble, when to hold. It was, quite possibly, the perfect game.
There have been more than a few landmark performances in the career of Jose Mourinho, but a very strong case can be made that this was his finest as a Premier League manager.
The impact on the title race was not immediately obvious. Chelsea started the day in third place and ended it there, too. The same with Manchester City in second. Goal difference separates them now, rather than three points, but goal difference can still win leagues and if the competition ended tomorrow the trophy would go to Arsenal.
No, Mourinho’s impact was greater than a mere jostling for position. He exposed a myth, he challenged the perceived wisdom, he inspected the evidence and threw it contemptuously to the floor. His revelation, the statement he made to the rest of the league, was that Manchester City are not invincible. There should be no procession, no deference, no awestruck observation of their inevitable progress to the finishing tape.
This team can be beaten. This team have weaknesses. That was Mourinho’s message for the masses. Chelsea’s performance was an invitation for others to do the same, to get at City’s defence, to place obstacles in the path of that all-conquering midfield.
What Mourinho proved was that if a coach can cause City as many problems as they are causing him, they are vulnerable. Few coaches have Chelsea’s squad, of course, or Mourinho’s intelligence in deploying it but now there is hope and a map that shows where the treasure is. This was worth more than just three points to Chelsea.
At the end, Mourinho’s emotion overwhelmed him. He punched the air, roared, chest-bumped every staff member and player in the vicinity. Then he shook Manuel Pellegrini’s hand. The pair have met nine times as managers, Mourinho winning seven and drawing one.
Chelsea have claimed all six points from City this season and this was an improvement on the win at Stamford Bridge.
Few thought Chelsea could win here. Week by week the growing momentum behind City’s title challenge has been obvious. Thumping victories, against some of the biggest and best in the land, their rivals stumbling as statisticians talked of scoring records, points records. And then, six days ago, as Chelsea and Arsenal drew with inferiors, City put five past Tottenham at White Hart Lane.
The facts, the numbers seemed overwhelming. Yet Mourinho showed where there is a will there is a way, even against Manchester City. They could have been three clear at half-time and hit the woodwork on three occasions. Pellegrini said City deserved a draw but few agreed. His team forced some good chances near the end, but Chelsea should have been comfortable by then. The best team won, simple as that.
The sole mitigation for City was that the injury to Fernandinho - four weeks out is the worst-case scenario - threw them a loop in midfield. Martin Demichelis was deployed in his place but was soon overrun.
Former City man Dietmar Hamann described Yaya Toure as a liability on Match of the Day earlier in the season and was mocked but it was possible to see what he meant.
Chelsea were so fast on the counter-attack that discipline was required but Demichelis could be seen looking around desperately for reinforcements. City played into Chelsea’s hands, but it was a trap perfectly set.
The announcement of Chelsea’s team saw much crowing about Mourinho parking the bus but, despite the solid base, it wasn’t like that at all.
Mourinho picked players to thwart City in midfield where they do most damage - Nemanja Matic, in front of the back four was quite exceptional - but he also packed his starting XI with enough pace to trouble City on the break.
Mourinho knew City would see plenty of the ball at home and prepared for it, but he also planned to shock them. So in a first half when City enjoyed the lion’s share of possession, much of it around Chelsea’s area, the visitors scored the only goal, had the best chance and hit the bar.
All on the counter-attack, obviously, but nothing wrong with that. Some of the greatest teams have played on the counter and those coached by Mourinho are invariably champions of the art.
The first 45 minutes, certainly, was as good as it gets; a lesson in how to absorb pressure and return it as energy. In science fiction films the aliens have machines like this. They suck all the firepower out of humanity’s weapons and pay it back in one mighty explosion.
That is what Chelsea did at the Etihad. They should have gone a goal up after 27 minutes when a sustained period of City pressure ended with a suicidally under-hit pass from Alvaro Negredo which necessitated a frantic last-ditch tackle from Demichelis to stop a Chelsea break.
He was unlucky with the rebound, and Chelsea were away. They were four on two when Willian slipped the ball to Ramires, who had only goalkeeper Joe Hart to beat. Ramires is a fabulous lively presence but he is no Deadeye Dick and his finish allowed Hart to make a fine save.
Just five minutes later, however, Chelsea’s tactics paid off. Eden Hazard — Chelsea’s creative heart who was dealt with accordingly by City, much to Mourinho’s fury - exchanged passes with Ramires, whose shot was charged down forcefully by Vincent Kompany. The ball ricocheted to full back Branislav Ivanovic for another decisive goalscoring intervention, striking a low shot from just outside the area that flew across Hart and into the bottom corner.
The Etihad watched, stunned. City never recovered. From there, Chelsea executed their game plan better. City at times looked like the Arsenal of old. Lots of lovely possession, lots of lovely football, but strategically short. Chelsea knew what they were about; they could easily have won by more.
There was a minute to go before half-time when a deep Hazard cross from the left picked out Samuel Eto’o in a surprising clearing at the far post. He struck the ball first time but against the bar. It was the first of a few like that.
Chelsea hit the woodwork twice in the second half - three strikes is the most by any team in the Premier League this season - once from a long-range shot by man of the match Matic that grazed the bar, then from a Gary Cahill header that struck a post, full on.
By contrast, City were surprisingly subdued. David Silva came close twice - one near miss, one fine Petr Cech save - and Stevan Jovetic brought the ground to its feet in injury time, but they never truly got behind Chelsea, not once. It was a master class. A game-changing, myth-busting master class. And it is all very different from here.
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Mirror:
Manchester City 0-1 Chelsea: Mourinho's men take the points in a thrilling battle at the Etihad
Martin Lipton
They stopped the "unstoppables". Touched the "untouchables". Beat the "unbeatables".
Now, can anybody truly believe Jose Mourinho doesn't think Chelsea can win the title?
Here, as Manuel Pellegrini watched his side shed a plate without Fernandinho and Sergio Aguero, City suddenly looked like a one-trick pony.
The visitors though, though, came through the greatest test with renewed faith, belief and conviction.
Still third, behind City and leaders Arsenal. But with the wind in their sails, stronger than at any time since the "Special One" came back into Stamford Bridge.
This was a Mourinho master-class, no question.
It is one thing the manager winning the tactical battle, though. Altogether another for the players to put it into action and carry it off.
And carry it off Chelsea did.
Better at the back, with John Terry outstanding, Gary Cahill not far behind, Alvaro Negredo and Edin Dzeko turned into flat-track bullies.
Better, once they found a way of neutralising Yaya Toure, in midfield, David Luiz' bumper car approach hugely effective, Nemanja Matic appearing the missing piece in the jigsaw.
And when they got the ball down and played sublime counter-attacking football, with Eden Hazard and Willian a constant menace, better at the other end as well.
This, remember, was against a team who had scored 115 goals already this season, who had bar Bayern Munich destroyed all Etihad comers since August, who had not failed to score a home League goal in 61 previous games, stretching back to November 2010.
But not by "parking the bus". Not by flooding midfield, setting up an impenetrable wall, relying on one lucky break.
In truth, the only surprise was that the margin was provided by perhaps the most unlikely source, Branislav Ivanovic's left foot.
It could have been, should have been, deserved to be greater. Chelsea, after all, through Samuel Eto'o, Matic and Cahill, hit the woodwork three times. Ramires missed when he surely had to score. Hazard and Willian had chances to punish City's defensive shortcomings too.
Yes, it had not started like that, not with Toure bulldozing his way through the central battlefield, David Silva elusive and electric.
Had Negredo, in the one moment he showed up, hit the target, had Toure got on the end of a move of the season contender which ended with Aleksandar Kolorav whistling through the six-yard box, had Silva swept in, rather than wide, from a Toure run and cross, it might, might, have been different.
But even when they were on the ropes, Chelsea were counter-punching with power and penetration, a footballing equivalent of Muhammad Ali's "rope-a-dope" tactic against George Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle.
Had Fernandinho been alongside Toure, rather than Martin Demichelis, Mourinho might have withdrawn Ramires into a central three, although he insisted he named his side at lunch-time and left the final words to masseur Billy McCulloch.
Instead, he played him wide on Kolarov, adding to the attacking threat.
Ramires, through the inside left channel as Willian led a four versus one counter, Matija Nastasic the loan defender, should have put Chelsea ahead.
Five minutes later, though, they had their advantage.
Ivanovic slipped Hazard into the hole behind Kolarov, Vincent Kompany, just, blocked Ramires but Ivanovic smashed the loose ball home from 18 yards.
Before the break, with City at sixes and sevens, Eto'o should have buried them from Hazard's cross, striking the top of the bar. And the second half was a similar story, City huffing and puffing, Chelsea carrying all the threat.
Matic, so clever and impressive, thrashed against the outside of the angle of post and bar from 25 yards, Cahill nodded a Willian corner onto Joe Hart's left-hand upright.
That sparked the belated response, Chelsea finally having to defend.
But Cahill cleared when Dzeko's mis-hit fell to Negredo's replacement Stevan Jovetic, Petr Cech dealt with Silva's free-kick, the Spaniard steered a Kolarov cross wide.
Mourinho, increasingly exuberant on the sidelines, was apoplectic as Nastasic only saw yellow for dragging Oscar back on half-way.
He might have exploded if Jovetic's late swerver had beaten Cech. It didn't.
Chelsea got all they deserved.
So did City.
Game on.
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Express:
Man City 0 - Chelsea 1: Jose Mourinho's men give Manuel Pellegrini the Blues
FOR ALL their goals, Manchester City have had a nagging vulnerability about them all season.
By: Richard Tanner
European champions Bayern Munich exposed the Achilles heel way back in October and even Championship side Watford took a 2-0 lead against them in the FA Cup.
Jose Mourinho never misses a tactical trick and time and again last night Chelsea drew City in, then hit them on the break.
They scored only one goal – a sweet strike from Branislav Ivanovic – but they could have had three or even four, with Samuel Eto’o, Gary Cahill and Nemanja Matic striking the woodwork and Joe Hart pulling off a wonder-save from Ramires.
The victory carried huge significance in the Premier League title race with Chelsea ending City’s 100 per cent home record and becoming the first team to stop them scoring at the Etihad in the league since Alex McLeish’s Birmingham slugged out a goalless draw back in November 2010.
The result brought them level on points with City but nowhere was the result celebrated more loudly than at the Emirates, with Arsenal staying top of the table.
Fernandinho’s hopes of impressing Brazil boss Luiz Felipe Scolari ahead of next month’s friendly against South Africa were dented by an injury picked up in training on the eve of the game.
With Javi Garcia also injured and Jack Rodwell not match fit, Martin Demichelis was pressed into action as the midfield anchor man and Matija Nastasic recalled as Vincent Kompany’s defensive partner.
It left City with a worrying lack of pace in certain areas and ensured some anxious moments in the first half.
City needed Yaya Toure at his inspirational best – and the Ivorian did not disappoint as City dominated the first half-hour. His pass created the first chance in only the second minute but Alvaro Negredo blazed high over the bar.
Toure then sent Aleksandar Kolarov away down the left before racing into the penalty area where he was only inches away from connecting with the return pass.
Chelsea were struggling to contain him. He fired a shot just over the bar after David Silva wrong-footed Chelsea’s defence then turned creator again, exchanging passes with Navas on a trademark barnstorming run before firing the ball across the six-yard area where Silva shot just wide of the far post.
City fans, encouraged by their team’s positive start, taunted Mourinho about the quality of Chelsea’s football. But it was tempting fate.
Chelsea had already threatened to expose City on the counter-attack several times and came close to taking the lead from one such swift break after 27 minutes. Pablo Zabaleta’s poor pass left Chelsea with four against two but Hart came to City’s rescue with a stunning save just as Ramires looked certain to score from Willian’s pass.
Hart could do nothing, though, when Chelsea took the lead five minutes later. Kompany threw himself in front of Ramires’s close-range shot but the ball rebounded to Ivanovic just outside the penalty area and he could not have hit a better shot with his weaker left foot, sending it flying like an arrow into the far corner of the net.
And it could have been worse for City before the break.
Zabaleta made a vital interception to stop Willian scoring from Eto’s pass. And Eto’o crashed a shot against the bar after Hazard, who had left Zabaleta for dead on the right, set up the chance with a low ball that skidded right through City’s six-yard area.
To add to City’s worries, two of their ball winners, Demichelis and Kolarov picked up cautions for fouls in the first half, leaving them walking a disciplinary tightrope for the rest of the game.
The mounting tension saw an angry verbal exchange between Mourinho and Alvaro Negredo.
Chelsea, oozing with confidence, continued to cause panic in the City defence in the second half. Cahill outjumped three defenders to thump a header against the post and Nastasic was lucky not be sent off when pulling back Oscar on another Blues break, Mike Dean instead showing a yellow card.
And for the first time this season, City looked short of attacking ideas. Dzeko fluffed a great chance to equalise when he failed to make a proper connection with Navas’s cross.
Silva also went close but, despite City’s late salvo, Chelsea held out.
Manchester City (4-4-2): Hart; Zabaleta, Kompany, Nastasic, Kolarov; Navas, Demichelis, Toure, Silva; Dzeko, Negredo (Jovetic 57). Booked: Demichelis, Kolarov, Nastasic.
Chelsea (4-5-1): Cech; Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta; Matic, Luiz, Ramires, Willian (Mikel 90), Hazard (Ba 90); Eto’o (Oscar 83). Booked: Ivanovic, Matic, Willian. Goal: Ivanovic 32.
Referee: M Dean (Wirral).
Next up: Manchester City – Sat: Norwich (a) league.
Chelsea – Sat: Newcastle (h) league.
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Star:
Man City 0 - Chelsea 1: Ivan the Incredible! Serbian ace Ivanovic earns Blues vital win
MANCHESTER CITY were brought down to earth last night by the genius of Eden Hazard on the pitch - and Jose Mourinho off it.
By David Woods
Six days ago Tim Sherwood claimed City played football from another planet after his Tottenham side were beaten 5-1 at home.
With all respect to the Spurs boss, he is no Mourinho. And the Chelsea coach shot down City, who had won all 11 league games at home this season and not failed to score in the league since November 2010.
Hazard was sensational. Last week Mourinho claimed he could be up with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. This performance suggested he already is.
As for Mourinho - all this talk of his men not being ready for the title is nonsense, especially if he gets his tactics right and his men follow his instructions to the letter, like they did last night.
He sent out David Luiz and Nemanja Matic - who is already looking like a bargain at £21m - to hold, with Hazard, Ramires, Willian and Samuel Eto’o breaking at pace and interchanging all the time, to bemuse and unsettle City.
The goal hero in the 32nd minute was Branislav Ivanovic, amazingly with his left foot. The Serb right-back does not get many, but he gets some vital ones. Before this his previous two were the winner against Aston Villa in Mourinho’s second game back and the only goal of the match as Chelsea beat Benfica in May to win the Europa League.
They won’t be playing in that next season as they are level on points now with second-placed City and two behind leaders Arsenal.
They have done the double over City, taken four points off champions Manchester United and are the only team to have stopped the Gunners scoring at home in the league, drawing 0-0 at The Emirates.
And his men did not park the bus, instead relying on resolute defence and superb breaks. Eto’o hit a post with a shot, Gary Cahill with a header and Matic smacked a stunning shot against the angle of post and bar - the latter two efforts coming in the second half.
City had their chances too. Yaya Toure came close on a number of occasions and David Silva poked wide twice and saw Petr Cech deny his well-struck free-kick.
Cech - one of many heroes on the night - also denied substitute Stevan Jovetic late on.
But it was Hazard who was the star when it came to attacking. He made the left flank his kingdom, with jinking runs galore.
For the winner in the 32nd minute he found Ramires twice, the second time after drifting to the right and setting up the No 7 for a shot which Vincent Kompany blocked.
But the ball went straight to Ivanovic, who smashed a wonderful, low angled drive which flashed past Joe Hart.
At the back John Terry, Cahill, Ivanovic and Cesar Azpilicueta formed a thick blue line which City, who have been scoring for fun, just could not breach.
Boss Manuel Pellegrini now has to lift his men - scorer of 115 goals this season before last night - after their spell was broken by the magic of Hazard and the cunning of Mourinho.
At the death Matija Nastasic fluffed a great chance. Shortly before Mourinho was furious he had not been sent off for hauling back substitute Oscar on the halfway line.
It was perhaps just as well he did not score - as heaven knows how Mourinho would have reacted!
As it was, he celebrated with a quick punch of the air.
He knows full well his men will now be full of self-belief - especially as they are performing so well in the games that count. Who knows how high they can go.
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