Man City 0-2

Independent:

Manchester City 2 Chelsea 0
Stevan Jovetic and Samir Nasri grab the reins to lead City gallop
Pellegrini’s men make smart response to rival’s jibes as they leave Mourinho with a long face
Tim Rich  

The debate, initiated by Jose Mourinho last week, was all about what kind of horses the clubs jostling for the championship were. Manchester City were “the rich horse”, Chelsea were, in the improbable words of their manager, “the little white horse”. Brendan Rodgers retorted that his Liverpool side were “the foal”.
 
In terms of the FA Cup, Chelsea are the Galloway pony that used to roam southern Scotland. They are extinct.
Manuel Pellegrini has grown weary of Mourinho's jibes, arguing that he would prefer his team to talk for him. This performance was more eloquent than Manchester City's manager could ever be. Their goals, from Stevan Jovetic and Samir Nasri, were superbly crafted; a vulnerable defence was never seriously threatened.
The teams were as strong as expected. Barcelona may be coming to Manchester, but there were few concessions to future contests.
As his team waited for the 1974 FA Cup final to kick off, Bill Shankly pinned up an article by Malcolm Macdonald boasting how the Newcastle striker would tear Liverpool apart. "There is no need to say anything, lads," said Shankly. "It's all been said." Here, too, much had been said, mostly by Mourinho.
Afterwards, the Chelsea manager was unusually downbeat, afflicted by a rare dose of humility: "City played much better than us and deserved to win," he reflected. "When the best team wins, I think football is at peace."
This was the reverse of the League game in that Pellegrini's hunches worked and Mourinho's did not. James Milner was stationed on the right flank with possibly the most difficult brief on the pitch: to keep Eden Hazard in check.
A lot of what the Chelsea manager says is like the ticker tape that floated in the wind during the tribute to Sir Tom Finney – insubstantial and designed just to catch the eye. But his assertion that Hazard was the "best young player in the world" looks as if it might have substance. The moments when he ran at the City defence were the only ones in which there was a sense of electricity about Chelsea's play.
During the interval Mourinho decided to bring off Samuel Eto'o for his newest acquisition, Mohamed Salah. It was an admission that his tactics had been toothless, although afterwards he refused to explain the reasoning behind it.
City's 1-0 defeat by Chelsea in the League had exposed Pellegrini's experiment of employing Martin Demichelis as a makeshift midfielder for the flimsy idea it was. With Fernandinho still unfit, Pellegrini deployed Yaya Touré alongside Javi Garcia to screen the back four.
The big Ivorian is, however, happiest marauding forward, preferably in a big game. It was Touré's opening shot that suggested how this tie might pan out. He chested the ball down before muscling his way past Nemanja Matic, and when his drive spilled out of Petr Cech's gloves Jov-etic reacted faster than Gary Cahill. But his flick struck the intersection of bar and post, and the striker flung his hands to his mouth in shock.
Moments later, his fingers were pressed to his lips to silence the raucous contingent who had travelled up from London. It was a beautifully worked goal, featuring interplay from David Silva and Edin Dzeko. Too late, Cesar Azpilicueta moved across to block Jovetic's shot.
After the goalless draw at Norwich that had taken City's total of dropped points to five in a week, Pellegrini had surveyed his list of injured and not fully-fit forwards and remarked: "It is time for Stevan Jovetic". That time was about 5.32pm on a windswept Saturday evening.
A little over an hour later and Chelsea's time was up. As it had been for the opening goal, the passing was too good. Here it was between Silva and Nasri and it opened up an inadequate back four. Silva's pass cut through the screening defenders and the boy from Marseilles severed Chelsea's connection to this season's FA Cup.
As the game died, the stadium began filling with abuse for Mourinho. It will not, however, be the last word between these clubs.

Manchester City (4-2-3-1): Pantilimon; Zabaleta, Kompany, Lescott, Clichy; Touré, Garcia; Milner, Jovetic (Nasri, 61), Silva (Navas, 69); Dzeko (Negredo, 81).
Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Cech; Ivanovic, Cahill, Luiz, Azpilicueta; Mikel, Matic; Ramires (Torres, 61), Willian (Oscar, 71), Hazard; Eto’o (Salah, h-t).

Referee: Phil Dowd.
Man of the match: Touré (Manchester City)
Match rating: 7/10

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Observer:

Manchester City ease past Chelsea to give Manuel Pellegrini revenge
Daniel Taylor at the Etihad

The furthest Manuel Pellegrini pushed it was when he pointed out afterwards that he still thought Chelsea's success here 12 days earlier had been overplayed. "Tactically, we didn't have any problems," he said. Otherwise, there was no gloating, or even the subtlest of putdowns, and it was a wise strategy from the Manchester City manager. He is never going to outdo José Mourinho when it comes to confrontation, brittle one-liners and media positioning – the Chelsea manager is simply too well-practised – but his team reminded everyone here why they are such formidable opponents, and that is always the best way to win these arguments.
They won with almost surprising ease, courtesy of a goal in each half from Stevan Jovetic and the fit-again Samir Nasri, and it was an ideal way to start a week in which the next assignment will be Tuesday's Champions League tie against Barcelona. Mourinho can still look back on Chelsea's two visits to Manchester and reflect they had the better of the deal, having already dismantled City's previously immaculate home record, but his team plodded through this defeat. They fell way short, particularly in attack, and it was perplexing to see Mourinho's players offer so little when the memories were still vivid of their outstanding performance of the season.
Chelsea tend to give everything in the FA Cup. On this occasion, they simply put on their coats and showed themselves to the door.
Mourinho talked afterwards about weariness and used Nemanja Matic's performances over the two games as an example of how it had caught up with them. Matic was superb in the first, over-run in the second. Yet Mourinho could have picked out others, too. Samuel Eto'o suffered the ignominy of being removed at half-time and there was a telling moment when Mourinho was asked whether he could put into words his frustrations about the contribution of Chelsea's strikers this season. "There are things I cannot say," he said. "I can just think things and keep them to myself."
In fairness to Eto'o, there was no real improvement for Chelsea after his withdrawal. Pellegrini had worked out a way to stifle Eden Hazard, with James Milner doubling up to help out Pablo Zabaleta. Willian was an elusive opponent but faded in the second half and Fernando Torres made little difference when he came on. Chelsea barely managed a single noteworthy attempt to establish whether Costel Pantilimon, deputising for Joe Hart, might be suspect.
They really ought to have done more, bearing in mind Pantilimon had needed three attempts to clasp a low cross from Chelsea's first attack of any real threat, 21 minutes into the game.
Nasri, returning from a month out with a knee injury, was a second-half substitute and had been on the pitch for only six minutes when he exchanged passes with David Silva to score the goal that effectively ended the game two-thirds of the way in. His return is timed well given the challenges that lie ahead in the next few days and Jovetic's input is also encouraging for Pellegrini, even if the Montenegrin did pick up a yellow card for a dive. Jovetic's luckless run with injuries has badly disrupted his first season in English football but here was the evidence that the £22.9m signing from Fiorentina can still play a considerable part.
Pellegrini had resisted the temptation to make wholesale changes and his main players, most notably Yaya Touré and Silva, created plenty of problems for Chelsea. Vincent Kompany looked like he had taken the last defeat as a personal affront and Hazard was contained so well that, after half an hour, Mourinho ordered him to swap places with Willian in a more central role.
Hazard had menaced City barely a fortnight ago. Now, there were only flashes of his excellence. Milner was excellent for City and Javi García, another player who seldom gets acclaim, coped much better in the defensive midfield role than Martín Demichelis had in the first game.
Mourinho was not on one of his elaborate wind-ups either when he talked about City being fresher. Pellegrini also noted it was "important" they had not played in midweek, because of the postponed match against Sunderland.
His team set off with the greater spark, taking the lead after 16 minutes with a move that began with their left-back, Gaël Clichy, and went across the pitch in a diagonal line, via Silva and Edin Dzeko, before the ball reached Jovetic. A minute earlier, Jovetic had flicked the crossbar with a follow-up shot to Touré's effort which Petr Cech could only spill. Now he took advantage of César Azpilicueta not being close enough and drove his shot in off the post.
The most startling aspect from a Chelsea perspective was their inability to respond. They were ponderous with both their thoughts and their movement and far too obliging when Nasri turned away from Mikel John Obi, played the ball into Silva and then darted between David Luiz and Gary Cahill to turn in the return pass. Silva had been marginally offside but, even then, Mourinho's complaints were measured. "Was the referee poor in the second half? Yes, but even with a perfect referee we would have lost one-nil."

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Telegraph:

Manchester City 2 Chelsea 0, FA Cup fifth round
Jason Burt, Etihad Stadium

Horses for courses, or so it seems. Having lost twice to Chelsea in the Premier League, Manchester City on Saturday night dumped Jose Mourinho’s side out of the FA Cup.
For Mourinho that will have hurt. This is a competition he has eulogised about – the last trophy he won as Chelsea manager first time round before being sacked in 2007 – but he will not ‘retain’ it.
For both these clubs the league and Champions League remain the bigger prizes but there will be rich satisfaction from Manuel Pellegrini in proving that Mourinho does not have some kind of hold on him.
That ‘little horse’, or so Mourinho argued Chelsea were in triumphing at the Etihad just under two weeks ago, ran out of legs. They were pony. They were not at the races, strangely muted, subdued and sterile as City were dominant. City will believe this was a watershed moment – not least with Barcelona to come as European competition resumes in midweek – to banish the doubts that they may not be tough enough to compete with Mourinho.
No-one would accuse him of being a specialist in failure but this was one that went badly wrongly for him and Chelsea who threatened little and appeared jaded as they were over-run at times by their wounded opponents.
The word was that Chelsea had put as much work into devising a tactical plan for this encounter as they had in overcoming City in the Premier League 12 days earlier. That may have also partly been through Mourinho’s concern at the continued absence of John Terry, through injury, while with the meeting with Barcelona to come in midweek he will also have a keen interest in Pellegrini’s team-sheet.
As ever with City, there were few concessions, few players were rested even if theabsence of Sergio Agüero and Fernandinho was hurting them. This was again a strong line-up.
It was also one keen to take a control of proceedings and surged into the lead with the simplest of strikes. City broke down the left through Gaël Clichy and quickly ferried the ball cross-field – through David Silva and then Edin Dzeko who picked out the over-lapping Stevan Jovetic. He took the ball in his stride and struck a first-time right-footed shot low across Petr Cech. It kissed the post on its way into the net.
The goal owed much to City’s movement and maybe Chelsea’s failure to re-adjust quickly enough to deal with that. Maybe Mourinho would have to re-think?
Moments earlier and Jovetic had also struck the woodwork as he seized onto the ball after Cech had fumbled a powerful drive by Yaya Touré from distance. With the angle acute, Jovetic’s rising shot clipped the top off the cross-bar before Toure again shot from distance. His effort veered wide.
City’s movement was causing problems. It may have been 4-4-2 but it was fluid. Silva was given licence to roam, Jovetic was dropping in between midfield and attack and the pair combined to tee up Dzeko whose curling shot was beaten out by a diving Cech.
The goal had certainly provided Mourinho with a problem. Chelsea were still being pressed back; they still counter-attack – and Willian ballooned over after Eden Hazard wriggled free – but City also were urgent without being desperate. They had the advantage and they were far more fluent with Toure, dominant and powerful and ‘up for it’ and Silva knitting the play together and Jovetic bright and eager to gain possession.
Hazard, inevitably, was Chelsea’s major weapon and he cleverly drew a yellow card for Vincent Kompany by shielding the ball away from his fellow Belgian while James Milner was also deployed to try and nullify his growing threat. Unsurprisingly Mourinho shifted Hazard in-field to try and increase his influence further and escape the shackles.
No quarter was given. Both sides closed each other down quickly; time on the ball was a luxury and, inevitably, it quickly made the contest more disjointed even if the pace remained unrelenting. Finally another opportunity arrived with Milner, after David Luiz rashly bundled over Jovetic, running free down the right before measuring a cross for Dzeko who mis-timed when he should have side-footed the ball home inside the six-yard area. A let-off for Chelsea with Mourinho walking down the tunnel before the half-time whistle had been blown. It was a sign of his displeasure.
Mourinho sprang a surprise. Off came the ineffective Samuel Eto’o and on came Mohamed Salah to play furthest forward and privide, perhaps, more pace. It was a bold move although, again, Fernando Torres must have been left wondering where this leaves him. Apart from again remaining on the bench.
But it was City who continued to show with Gary Cahill blocking Milner’s cross-cum-shot and Jovetic, who was later booked for an appalling dive as he ran into Luiz, skying after a cut-back from the over-lapping Clichy.
Finally Torres was given his chance, leading to another re-jig and Salah pushed back out to his favoured position on the wing while City re-introduced Samir Nasri, fit again after his knee ligament injury.
He made an immediate impact as he collected possession inside the Chelsea defence and ran at Gary Cahill. Four Chelsea defenders back-pedalled and Silva cleverly ran across for Nasri to slip the ball to him. Silva squared – and there was Nasri, with Cahill caught out and Cech stranded, to tap the ball into the unguarded net and double City’s advantage.
Chelsea appeared increasingly disjointed; demoralized even. They badly missed Terry and City were dominant as a marginal offside decision denied Joleon Lescott the third goal after Cech failed to hold Dzeko’s header.
In fairness to Chelsea Cahill had made a surprise return from injury although Nemanja Matic was not the significant presence he was in midfield in the last meeting.
Finally Chelsea found a response and, at last, created some pressure as Cesar Azpilicueta blasted over and Lescott alertly hooked the ball away as Matic shaped to shoot from close-range. But there would be no way back for Chelsea. The horse had bolted.

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Times:

Manuel Pellegrini lets scoreline do the talking  
James Ducker 
Manchester City 2 Chelsea 0

José Mourinho has aimed plenty of barbs at Manchester City in recent weeks. Perhaps after this, the Chelsea manager will quieten down for a while.
Manuel Pellegrini must have afforded himself a wry chuckle at Mourinho’s assertion this week that Arsène Wenger “loves to look” at Chelsea. The City manager could accuse the Portuguese of doing just that with City of late.
From branding City “lucky” to questioning their long-term development plans, Mourinho has been blabbing on continuously about the Manchester club in recent weeks. Pellegrini, of course, prefers to let the football do the talking. At the Etihad Stadium, City did just that, goals in either half from Stefan Jovetic and Samir Nasri easing them into the FA Cup quarter-finals with plenty to spare.
For Pellegrini, this must have felt like a vindication as his tactics had been called into question after the 1-0 defeat by Chelsea in the Barclays Premier League ten days earlier. It was also the perfect warm up for the first leg of their Champions League round-of-16 tie at home to Barcelona on Tuesday.
City were better in every department: stronger in the tackle, quicker to the ball, faster and more fluid with their movement. If the league match had been a masterclass from Mourinho and his players, this was anything but.
The Chelsea manager could have no complaints about the result but he will have had plenty about the haphazard nature of his side’s defending. Seldom does a Mourinho team defend as poorly as this.
All told, it was one of Chelsea’s most disappointing displays on the road this season. City, by contrast, remain firmly in the hunt for an unprecedented quadruple.
Pellegrini said he was “absolutely sure” that City’s defeat by Chelsea in the league had not been a “problem with tactics” but rather a result of personnel issues. Injuries had forced the City manager to move Martin Demichelis, a defender, into central midfield for the game, a decision that played straight into Chelsea’s hands.
With a recognised central midfielder in Javi García alongside Yaya Touré this time out, City certainly had a more robust look as they took a 1-0 lead into the interval. Whether Pellegrini wishes to admit he erred tactically or not in that previous encounter, it was clear during a first half in which City were the better team by far that the Chilean had learnt some lessons from it.
Eden Hazard had tormented City throughout in the league fixture but it was telling that every time the Belgium player got the ball, the home team moved quickly to close him down. Vincent Kompany was positively straining at the leash to get close to Hazard and while he did that exceptionally well for the most part, over-exuberance did cost him a booking in the 38th minute when he manhandled Hazard to the ground.
If City were much improved, Chelsea struggled to match the exceedingly high standards they set on the last visit to the Etihad. They had ganged up on Touré, harassing and haranguing him at every turn, but the Ivory Coast player had more freedom here and, when García won a header in the fifteenth minute, City’s midfield talisman was able to hold off Nemanja Matic and unleash a powerfully hit drive. Petr Cech should have smothered the ball but when the Chelsea goalkeeper spilled it, Jovetic collected the rebound only for his first-time shot to skim off the crossbar and over.
It was a warning that Chelsea failed to heed as, within a minute, City had taken the lead. On this occasion, Jovetic would not be denied. Gaël Clichy surged forward down the left and played the ball inside to David Silva who quickly released it to Edin Dzeko. With Chelsea’s defenders not nearly close enough, the Bosnian was able to play the ball into the path of Jovetic, racing in from the right. An angled shot sailed through the legs of César Azpilicueta and past the outstretched hand of Cech before bouncing in off the far post. It was very well-taken goal but a cheap one to concede from Chelsea’s perspective.
Chelsea had delivered a masterclass in counter-attacking football the previous week but they were short of ideas here. A cross by Branislav Ivanovic was saved by Costel Pantilimon at the second attempt, before Samuel Eto’o could get a firm connection with the ball, and Willian ballooned an effort over but that was about it during the opening 45 minutes. Indeed, City should really have been two goals to the good at the break.
Just before the interval, David Luiz flattened Jovetic and was subsequently booked for the challenge but Phil Dowd sensibly played the advantage as James Milner collected the loose ball and charged down the right channel towards goal. His cross was low, hard and measured and had Dzeko showed an ounce more courage and conviction he would doubtless have got on the end of it with the goal at his mercy. Instead, the chance went begging.
Mourinho has never been afraid to change things around when necessary and at half-time he withdrew Eto’o, put on Mohamed Salah, moved Willian to the left and Hazard into a more central position. Fifteen minutes later, with City still relatively untroubled, Ramires was replaced by Fernando Torres, with Hazard asked to try to pull the strings behind or occasionally alongside the Spaniard.
Imagine Mourinho’s frustration then - with his changes failing to create the slightest chink in City’s armour - as he watched Pellegrini’s first substitution reap an almost instantaneous reward. Nasri, making his first appearance for over a month due to a knee injury, had only been on the pitch six minutes when he fashioned and finished City’s second goal. Again, Chelsea’s defending left much to be desired.
Kompany fired a ball to Nasri who had acres of space to roam forward, with John Obi Mikel guilty of switching off. Mikel’s Chelsea team-mates were no quicker in closing down Nasri, though, enabling the France midfielder to play a one-two with Silva that bypassed Gary Cahill with almost embarrassing ease before he walked the ball into an empty net.


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Mail:

Manchester City 2-0 Chelsea:
Pellegrini gets two over Mourinho as Jovetic and Nasri put City into the FA Cup quarters
By Rob Draper

It felt like the restoration of the natural order.
Manchester City had failed 12 days ago when Jose Mourinho seemed to have reasserted his tactical supremacy in England. The all-powerful, unstoppable City of the previous few months had been stifled and suddenly no longer seemed invincible.
Yet that result had clearly stung both the City players and their manager, Manuel Pellegrini. So good were City in the rematch that you were left wondering whether that earlier defeat was just an illusory moment; that the hard reality of the season is that City are overwhelmingly the dominant team in England.
The scoreline suggested a reasonable contest but it massaged the truth. Other than the injured John Terry, Chelsea lined up full strength whereas City, with Barcelona in mind, made five changes to the team that lost 1-0 to Chelsea.
Yet City were dominant from start to finish. In fact, it was difficult to recall a decent chance created by the visitors over the 90 minutes.
City not only buzzed with creativity, with David Silva and James Milner both excellent, but also overpowered Chelsea.
Mourinho may have won the previous tactical battle but this was a stark reminder that systems will only ever take you so far. With a squad like Manchester City’s, you can make 4-4-2 look progressive.
But Pellegrini is a man who dislikes fuss. ‘It was not revenge,’ he said, as Vincent Kompany was speaking of just that. ‘It wasn’t a masterclass in tactics,’ he said, puncturing the fuss of the last game.
‘For me, the important thing was to beat a great team. And also there were a lot of questions after the Chelsea game: are we going to change our way of playing? I always said we will not change our way of playing.’
Both managers drew attention to City’s postponed game on Wednesday leaving them in better condition. ‘It was very important we didn’t play,’ said Pellegrini.
‘The team were not fresh and that is why we had a little down in our performances against Chelsea and Norwich. But working again with the team on Thursday and Friday, I was absolutely sure that today we were going to have a very good game.
‘Today we saw again the team that were playing before the last two games. It was very important to have the performance that we had. I don’t think Chelsea had a chance to shoot.’
So good were City that they muted Mourinho. Not literally, of course, but there was a more demure tone to his analysis. ‘They played much better than us, they deserved much more than us to win,’ said Mourinho. ‘I think today is simple to analyse: they were the best team; they won.’
Being Mourinho, he had a gripe about the referee and his assistants in the second half, but with some cause concerning the second goal, in which Silva appeared just offside.
He did add though: ‘But would we have won the game with a perfect referee team? No. They were better than us. The second goal was offside but they would win 1-0 because we were never close to score or to scare them.’
First to the ball and pressing manically, City never allowed Chelsea time to settle. The poise of Nemanja Matic was disrupted and John Obi Mikel struggled as Yaya Toure asserted his usual dominance, ably helped by Javi Garcia.
This was the powerful agile City, so quick to move the ball that even accomplished opponents struggle. After only 16 minutes they had gone close when Toure smashed a shot which Petr Cech fumbled, allowing Stevan Jovetic to chip over the goalkeeper but off the crossbar.
The relief was brief. A minute later Silva found Edin Dzeko, who played a superb ball to open up space for Jovetic. The Montenegro striker finished delightfully in what would turn out to be his best performance since he arrived last July.
Chelsea briefly threatened a response when Branislav Ivanovic charged down the right wing and pulled back a cross that Costel Pantilimon fumbled, almost allowing in Samuel Eto’o. But Dzeko missed a glorious opportunity to consolidate City’s dominance just on half-time, failing to connect with Milner’s excellent cross.
Chelsea were suddenly uncertain and Mourinho reacted. Off came Eto’o at half-time and on went Mohamed Salah to play the central striking role. It was a dramatic move and recognition that something needed to change.
It made no impact. Nasri, who has been out for a month with knee injury, arrived on 61 minutes and he took just another seven to announce his return. City’s dominance was stretching Chelsea and when Kompany found Nasri 40 yards from goal, he was completely unmarked in a sea of space. The Frenchman simply turned and drove on, releasing Silva, who looked just offside.
Still, the Spaniard then produced the pass of the match, an exquisitely deft cutback that fell directly into the path of Nasri, who had not stopped running and who had the easiest of close-range chances to make it 2-0.
The Etihad Stadium was awash with appreciation — and derision for Mourinho. When Joleon Lescott headed in on 76 minutes an even more humiliating scoreline beckoned, but Chelsea were saved by the offside flag. Still, the result was never in doubt. This was City at their emphatic best

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Mirror:

Manchester City 2-0 Chelsea: Jovetic and Nasri on target as hosts keep Quadruple dream alive
 
By Dave Kidd

After 10 years as a manager in European football, Manuel Pellegrini has only ever won the Intertoto Cup – a fact Jose Mourinho has not failed to notice.
The Chelsea boss will not be able to sneer for long, though. The Chilean may not be shouting from the rooftops about a possible Quadruple, but City are still rumbling along on all four fronts with few weaknesses in their mighty squad.
They handed Mourinho’s men a convincing FA Cup defeat, thanks to goals from Stevan Jovetic and Samir Nasri, leaving the mouthy Chelsea boss in the unusual position of admitting that the best team had won.
City, who will face Barcelona in the Champions League on Tuesday without any sort of inferiority complex, are now one win away from securing another Wembley date, with a Capital One Cup Final against Sunderland to come in a fortnight.
City were the fresher side after a midweek breather. Even without their
first-choice strike partnership and midfield pendulum Fernandinho, they left a strong Chelsea side well beaten.
It meant that Pellegrini had won an ‘Oil Firm Derby’ at the third attempt – handing the Abu Dhabi Sheikhs a victory over the Siberian JR, Roman Abramovich, after a league double for Chelsea.
City captain Vincent Kompany said: “We love the FA Cup and this was a great game for the competition. Twelve days ago we had a really bad game here against Chelsea and gave chances away. Today we adapted. We were comfortable. We wanted revenge.
“From the word go we were hard in challenges, created a lot of chances and didn’t give much away.”
The result at least quietened down Mourinho.
On Friday he had countered a gentle thrust of the stiletto from Arsene Wenger with a sustained barrage of verbal machine-gun fire – calling the Arsenal manager a “specialist in failure”. Ouch.
Yesterday, Mourinho was all injured feelings and messenger-shooting – ‘woe is me, I’m always the bad guy’ – as he stopped just short of donning one of Mario Balotelli’s ‘Why Always Me?’ T-shirts.
Pellegrini has also been injured by a few of the Special One’s barbs but nothing will have hurt him as much as the display which brought Chelsea a 1-0 Premier League victory here two weeks ago.
Mourinho had won seven of his nine previous duels with Pellegrini – and both men sent out near full-strength teams, a show of respect for the Cup as well as their mutual emnity.
Jovetic was afforded a clear-sighter early on when Yaya Toure had a long-range effort spilled by Petr Cech only for the Montenegro striker to shoot over.
But within a minute City were in front, with one of their trademark slalom passing moves. David Silva slipped one to Edin Dzeko – who can play on the rare occasions he decides to stay on his feet – and the Bosnian sent in Jovetic to drill home off the far post.
David Luiz then collided with Jovetic, allowing James Milner to drive in a low cross with which Dzeko should have connected.
Chelsea’s rare attacking forays were generally snuffed out by Kompany, with Eden Hazard bearing the brunt of his fellow Belgian’s muscularity.
Mourinho stormed back to the dressing-room early before half-time, preparing to replace Samuel Eto’o with Egyptian new boy Mohamed Salah. When that made no difference, Fernando Torres was sent on.
Jovetic was booked for a shocking dive as he deliberately bounced off Luiz and fell like an extra from Saving Private Ryan.
But when Nasri made his comeback from injury as a sub on the hour, he killed the tie within eight minutes.
The Frenchman’s through-ball found Silva – perhaps marginally offside – but the flag stayed down and he cut back for Nasri to tap in.
Pellegrini could afford himself a cheeky grin. He is in the mood for trophies – and plenty of them.

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Express:

Man City 2 - Chelsea 0: Pellegrini's men ease past sorry Blues

LABELLED by Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho as “big horses” it was Manchester City’s ‘‘Shergar’’ who helped to ease Manuel Pellegrini’s side into the FA Cup quarter-finals.
By: John Richardson

Stevan Jovetic has barely been seen since his big summer move from Fiorentina, the £22million striker ravaged by injuries.
But City’s invisible man came to the plate to help avenge the 1-0 Premier League defeat here 12 days ago.
He finished splendidly to give a dominant City the lead – one which was endorsed with another well crafted goal from Samir Nasri.
It was a personal triumph for Pellegrini, who previously had won only one of nine games against Mourinho.
It was also the right response in the cool Chilean’s eyes to the torrent of psychological barbs which have come his way with a Stamford Bridge postmark all over them.
Mourinho had tried to put pressure on Pellegrini and his team by making them favourites for the league title. “Big horses” he called them. Today he should start a steward’s inquiry into his “little horses”, which decidedly went lame.
“Your team is a load of s***e,” mocked the City fans. A bit harsh but they were certainly well below their usual best.
Revenge affairs are usually better conducted without the shadow of one of the greatest teams in world football hovering over you.
But a quick glance at the team sheet showed that City were up for the task three days ahead of the visit of Barcelona.
The problem for Pellegrini and his players was that Chelsea, even with a week’s rest coming up, were also in the mood for a Saturday night dust-up – at least judging by the team sheet.
So it was a case of lighting the touch paper, sky blue or royal blue depending on your persuasion, and sitting back.
It took only 15 minutes for the game to explode into life with Jovetic announcing his presence, nipping in on a Petr Cech spill from Yaya Toure’s attempt, to crack the rebound against the top of the bar.
Within 60 seconds the woodwork was struck again by the Montenegro international, but this time with gleeful consequences for City.
A sharp flowing move involving Gael Clichy, David Silva and Edin Dzeko ended with a clinical angled finish from Jovetic, which beat Cech via the inside of the post.
Chelsea looked rattled, especially after their game plan in the Premier League win here earlier in the month hadn’t caused them too many defensive flutters.
Jovetic was clearly enjoying the trust placed in him by his manager after so many injuries and forced Cech into a smart save. Toure fired wide and Dzeko saw a blast from outside the area palmed away by the Chelsea keeper.
Mourinho prowled the technical area looking for a response from his “little horses”, especially from his top jockey Eden Hazard.
The going certainly looked tough as Chelsea made their way to what was certain to be a half-time grilling from their anxious manager.
David Luiz had been fortunate to even make it to the break, continuing to argue with referee Phil Dowd after being yellow-carded for a cynical foul on Jovetic. Dowd ushered skipper Cech to him before handing out a final warning to the temperamental Brazilian.
Strangely Mourinho ditched Samuel Eto’o in favour of his £11m January window signing Mohamed Salah, starting the second half without a conventional through-the-middle striker.
James Milner’s presence had given City’s midfield, which had been overrun in the Etihad league encounter, plenty of energy to go alongside David Silva’s invention – something this time around Chelsea had struggled to come to terms with.
Sadly, Jovetic joined the army of divers besmirching the game when he fell to the ground spectacularly as he tried to round Luiz. Thankfully referee Dowd got it right and yellow-carded Jovetic and not Luiz, who would have had to go off.
Mourinho brought Fernando Torres on to give a so far impotent attack some direction and purpose.
But it was City who still carried the greater danger and only six minutes after coming on as a substitute Nasri, making his return following injury, made it 2-0.
It was a brilliant one-two between Nasri and the slick Silva which carved Chelsea open, leaving the Frenchman with an easy side-footed finish.
So after a quick handshake with his one time nemesis, for Pellegrini it was off to prepare for Barcelona. For Mourinho it was a darkened room.

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Star:

Manchester City 2 - Chelsea 0: Manuel Pellegrini gets his first victory over Jose Mourinho

IF Jose Mourinho this he has only a little horse running in the Premier League title race then he was watching FA Cup donkeys last night.

By Paul Hetherington

The Chelsea boss saw his side make an unusually feeble exit from the competition as City deservedly triumphed through goals from Stevan Jovetic and substitute Samir Nasri.
For City, whose quadruple hopes are still very much alive, it was revenge for their defeat here against a totally different Chelsea 12 days earlier.
And the result gave City boss Manuel Pellegrini only his second win against Mourinho in ten meetings. Both managers went for strong line-ups, despite their other commitments.
And Chelsea’s team was especially powerful, with only injured skipper John Terry missing, while Oscar started on the bench.
But it was City who surged into the lead as Jovetic hit the woodwork twice in the 16th minute – the second time bringing that early goal.
On the first occasion, the attacking midfielder’s effort hit the top of the bar and flew behind after Chelsea keeper Petr Cech had failed to hold Yaya Toure’s drive.
But City were straight back at the visitors, with a sweeping move involving Gael Clichy, David Silva and Edin Dzeko.
The attack ended with Jovetic striking a right-foot shot across Cech and in off the far post.
It was previously free-scoring City’s first goal in three matches.
Cech then had to beat away a curling effort by Dzeko after the busy Jovetic had supplied the cross.
Chelsea’s slow start made it a comfortable opening to the tie for City.
But there was a moment of alarm when keeper Costel Pantilimon, deputising as usual in the cup for Joe Hart, only gathered Branislav Ivanovic’s cross at the second attempt.
Ivanovic, the match winner at the Etihad 12 days earlier, had driven the ball in hard and low from the right and Pantilimon initially fumbled, before claiming the ball with Samuel Eto’o waiting to pounce.
Mourinho responded to a surprisingly-subdued performance from his side by withdrawing Eto’o at half time and replacing him with Mohamed Salah.
Eden Hazard was also pushed further forward as the Chelsea boss sought a greater threat from his side.
Eto’o had been starved of service and almost a spectator as Toure, Silva and Jovetic – later booked for a blatant dive – controlled the match.
And City could have made it 2-0 when a James Milner cross flew across the face of the goal with Dzeko unable to get a touch.
But they did finally grab a vital second goal in the 67th minute through Nasri, who had come on for Jovetic just six minutes earlier.
The Frenchman worked a delightful one-two with Silva before side-footing into an empty net.
Joleon Lescott also forced the ball into the Chelsea net 14 minutes from time but that was ruled offside.
It was always City’s night, though, with Spanish playmaker Silva giving an outstanding performance.
And it puts Pellegrini’s side in good heart for Tuesday night’s mouth-watering Champions League clash here against Barcelona.
Skipper Vincent Kompany said: “We wanted revenge and that’s a big win for us against a strong team. We love this competition and we love the FA Cup.
“We are really happy with the result. We had a really bad game twelve days ago against Chelsea and gave them a lot of chances.
“We just adapted today. We were comfortable, hard in the opening challenges and didn’t give any chances away.”
Mourinho said: “City played much better than us. The situation is simple to analyse. They were the best team and they won.
“The second goal was an offside but we would still have lost one-nil as we were never close to scaring City.”



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