Manchester City vs. Chelsea 20:00

fully deserved by Chelsea

Lucas Hood

Brilliant Chelsea performance all over the pitch.

Hazard is quality , just feel he sometimes doesn't take the game by the scruff of the neck as much as he should.

The Davestator

Great result. Mad work ethic from all Chelsea players. Hazard, matic, terry, Cahill, willian etc were immense

The 2 points dropped against west ham are annoying me even more now!

WoollyRedHat

Agueroooo wrote: »

Arsenal should be worried. Very worried.

Why, we're not even in the title race sure.

Chazz Michael Michaels

Slattsy wrote: »

Lovely. Thats Liverpool back in the title race.

Our Year

Lol

Francie Barrett

You have to admire Mourinho's ability to draw all pressure away from the players and put it on himself. I think because he himself is under pressure, it just motivates his players even more to support their boss.

Andersonisgod

Where's the bus? Where's the bus? All I saw was a train!

Devastating, vintage Jose Mourinho. He caught everyone on the hop, tonight he did exactly what he said he would do, he sent a team out there to win the game, to win a vital 3 points and to put Chelsea quite firmly into the title mix. It was a Mourinho masterclass, complete with gigantic efforts from every single player in a Chelsea jersey, with towering defensive performances and pin-point attacking, City's defence had never looked so vulnerable at home.

It's tough to point to an individual because each player did what was asked of them, each player went beyond the call of duty but Cahill, Azpilicueta, Hazard and Willian were all excellent but my pick for MOTM is the herculean Serbian at the heart of the Chelsea midfield, Nemanja Matic was everywhere, a dominating force that equalled Yaya Toure, not since Makelele or Essien in his prime have Chelsea had a central midfielder of this quality.

It's Mourinho's night, it's Chelsea's night, COME ON CHELSEA!

urabell

Greatest night in Chelsea history since their formation in 2004

Duck Soup

Matic the Barclay's Man of the Match.

Johner

urabell wrote: »

Greatest night in Chelsea history since their formation in 2004

Good one.

Tinie

Slattsy wrote: »

Lovely. Thats Liverpool back in the title race.

Our Year

Morzadec

Great game, and a brilliant performance by Chelsea. Fully deserved 3 points.

City's injuries really hampered them which just goes to show even with a bottomless pit of money you can still have squad problems.

Ultimately Pelligrini needs to hold his hands up though, as he arguably underestimated Chelsea. Things were going wrong before the goal and he didn't address them. The fullbacks pushing on so far with only Demichelis as their covering DM, against an extremely mobile, quick and dangerous Chelsea counter, was very risky and Chelsea should have probably punished them further. Never felt that City had control of the game.

Hazard was absolutely brilliant tonight and may well be the best young player in the world at the moment.

Title race is very interesting now. I would still tip City as I think they have the better squad to consistently win matches. Like United in years gone by, perhaps they can be exposed in big matches like this occasionally, but they score so many goals.

A Mourinho masterclass tonight and an excellent Chelsea performance won't disguise the fact they are relying on 3 mediocre strikers to score their goals. I said it in the summer, at the start of the season and again in January, and despite the result tonight I'll stick by it - I don't think Chelsea will win the title without a top class centre-forward.

Arsenal should not be written off also, many here still continue to underrate them, they have been top almost all season.

But I would still go for City - however many had it as a foregone conclusion, some might revise that after tonight.

Cienciano

Johner wrote: »

Wheres all the lads about parking buses now? :rolleyes:

Super performance.

Robbie Savage's tactics column should be interesting next week. From football365:

Witness this from his 'How Spurs can beat Man City' tactical masterclass on the BBC Sport website last week:
'Taking the game to City is definitely Tottenham's best bet because if you try to hold them off, they will always break you down in the end.'

Seven days and a 5-1 drubbing later, Savage is now giving Chelsea advice about the best way to beat City:
'To deal with Manchester City, I think Jose Mourinho will have to park the bus, sit deep and try to hit them on the counter.'


Mediawatch would admire him more/at all if he just admitted he didn't have a f***ing clue, and who was the idiot who thought it was a good idea to give him a tactics column anyway

Johner

Slattsy wrote: »

How man bottles of Coors have ye had tonight :P

0

Slattsy

Johner wrote: »

0

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz :P

messinkiapina

Andersonisgod wrote: »

Where's the bus? Where's the bus? All I saw was a train!

Devastating, vintage Jose Mourinho. He caught everyone on the hop, tonight he did exactly what he said he would do, he sent a team out there to win the game, to win a vital 3 points and to put Chelsea quite firmly into the title mix. It was a Mourinho masterclass, complete with gigantic efforts from every single player in a Chelsea jersey, with towering defensive performances and pin-point attacking, City's defence had never looked so vulnerable at home.

It's tough to point to an individual because each player did what was asked of them, each player went beyond the call of duty but Cahill, Azpilicueta, Hazard and Willian were all excellent but my pick for MOTM is the herculean Serbian at the heart of the Chelsea midfield, Nemanja Matic was everywhere, a dominating force that equalled Yaya Toure, not since Makelele or Essien in his prime have Chelsea had a central midfielder of this quality.

It's Mourinho's night, it's Chelsea's night, COME ON CHELSEA!

Just read that post in the voice of a 1940's BBC news reporter. Brilliant

Francie Barrett

Robbie Savage is an idiot.

Kerrigooney

Hazard really is a joy to watch.

GavRedKing

urabell wrote: »

Greatest night in Chelsea history since their formation in 2004

Its up there alright and Roman joined in June 2003.

Chazz Michael Michaels

messinkiapina wrote: »

Just read that post in the voice of a 1940's BBC news reporter. Brilliant

Lol

GavRedKing

Kerrigooney wrote: »

Hazard really is a joy to watch.

If he adds consistency and plays like that more often he'd be a real threat over 90 mins, sometimes hes on the verges of the game.

Demosthenese

Comfortable victory, thought Pelligrini was very naive playing 2 up font especially when he was foced to play Demichelis in the middle who was poisonous all night. Negredo was kept quiet up front badly needed another midfielder to compensate.

Funny how everyone talks about City's mass of money all the time, not like Chelsea don't go out and buy anyone that they wish either!

Gbear

Johner wrote: »

And Chelsea had enough chances to win two games. Better team by far.

Absolutely.

But City have only themselves to blame.

Chelsea might've been unlucky not to score more but City missed because they were terrible at finishing.

Agueroooo

Interesting tactic from Mourinho.

choke the center of midfield and man mark Toure (easier said than done) then recycle the ball to the creative players (Hazard,Willian) and City never got started.

Lot of other PL managers would have got something out of tonights game.

blueser

Credit where credit's due; we were beaten by the better team tonight. Praise the Lord for goalposts! What we need to do now is to stand up, dust ourselves off and go again. At least one good thing will have come from tonight. The crazy talk of the quadruple from the media and some of the more delusional of our fans might stop now.

niallo27

Chelsea deserved to win but silva missed two great chances for city. Chelsea could easily have been punished.

Demosthenese

Agueroooo wrote: »

Interesting tactic from Mourinho.

choke the center of midfield and man mark Toure (easier said than done) then recycle the ball to the creative players (Hazard,Willian) and City never got started.

Lot of other PL managers would have got something out of tonights game.

Man mark Silva you mean ... was very effective.

wandatowell

25 shots with only 3 on target from City.


poor.

Sheepy99

JPA wrote: »

Surely you believe Guardiola is the best manager of this generation?
You must be very conflicted.

When he does something with Bayern, he might be considered...

Barr

Well deserved win for Chelsea tonight.

geeky

I'm far from Milner's biggest fan, but I can't help thinking that the game might have played out very differently with him - or anyone with a shred of mobility - in the side ahead of Demichelis.

As it was, three energetic central midfielders from Chelsea were able to break down play and get the ball to Willian and Hazard for counter-attacks so quickly. Aside from a shaky first 10 minutes and final 15, they won the midfield battle hands-down.

Duck Soup

Notice Brian Johnson of AC/DC in the background trying to tell Jose to calm down.

SlickRic

brilliant Chelsea.

Mourinho, the master tactician.

sensational Eden Hazard.

wonderfullife

TimeToShine wrote: »

Mou playing 3 defensive midfielders...they may as well park an A380 in front of their goals. Some cheek considering his little speech about WH's negative football.

Ideally a draw but if one team were to win I really hope City stuff them. Hopefully a goal early on to force them to come out and play.

Vinz Mesrine wrote: »

11 men behind the ball until half time at least.

urabell wrote: »

beep beep beep beep beep beep brake. park.

messinkiapina wrote: »

I think the bus driver is just about to park her up for the night.

urabell wrote: »

11 Chelsea shirts in the box there

Ermmmm..... feel free to chime in with "i was massively wrong" :pac:

Everybody having a pop at Mourinho over his West Ham comments.

What West Ham did was, in effect, this horrible "bus park" cliche.

What Chelsea did tonight was play stunning counter-attacking football.

SlickRic wrote: »

brilliant Chelsea.

Mourinho, the master tactician.

sensational Eden Hazard.

+1

Absolutely noticeable the difference in workrate from Hazard under Mourinho.

He lost a ball late on and ran 60 yards to chase it down.

In any other season, Oscar and Hazard would be right up there for Player of the Year. It's unfortunate for them that Suarez is a complete freak of a genius.

Still, at this point in time, i'd have both Oscar and Hazard in the Premier League team of the year.

urabell

GavRedKing wrote: »

Its up there alright and Roman joined in June 2003.

Sorry friend, that was a typo I meant their formation in 1905