Like their losses at Wigan and Aston Villa, this match started well, Chelsea ahead early and looking comfortable. Without a league win since September and fragile at the back, you feared for City. Instead, they presented their embattled manager and a record Eastlands crowd with a performance of bullish resolve. There was good fortune to the equaliser — the ball rebounding off Micah Richards’ arms into the path of Emmanuel Adebayor — and debate over their winner, with Ricardo Carvalho bemused that his sneaky foul on the buzzing Carlos Tevez had been detected. It even needed an immaculate penalty save from Shay Given to keep Chelsea at bay, yet this, City’s first victory over the Premier League’s original billionaires since 2004, may mark a turning point for their coach.
Joe Lovejoy, The Observer
City were full of vim and vigour in the second half. They have had a habit of throwing away promising positions, but this time Chelsea were worried. Drogba's demeanour is a barometer of his team's angst, and he was bleating in overdrive. Cech, under pressure from Adebayor, booted the ball nervily into touch and Carvalho was booked for a rash challenge that was the product of City's pressure. Wright‑Phillips got away from Ashley Cole for once to create a shooting chance for Adebayor, who was thwarted by Ivanovic's last-ditch clearance.
Oliver Brown, Sunday Telegraph
Cheslea had not conceded a league goal for nearly nine hours until this collision with Mark Hughes’s well-drilled, well-equipped team, which seemed to treat the loss of 14 points in seven games as a trifling irritation. All that has changed for City with this priceless scalp. Hughes has worked a familiar trick, acting with supreme patience despite suggestions he was about to be sacked by Sheikh Mansour, before delivering the emphatic reply on the pitch.
Malcolm Folley, Mail on Sunday
For once, Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich understood what it is like to feel inadequate at the bank. In comparison to the inestimable billions that City’s proprietors from Abu Dhabi can lay their hands on should they feel underwhelmed by Hughes’s team, Abramovich will demand that Ancelotti shows restraint when the transfer window is thrown open next month.
But money is not necessarily the root of all evil when teams play with this sort of passion and ambition.
2 comments:
Nice to see this last line in the final report...
"But money is not necessarily the root of all evil when teams play with this sort of passion and ambition."
Sums up what's been lacking in previous encounters with lesser teams. Great result, some superb individual performances. Some teams around us could drop points next Saturday so lets keep the momentum and thump Bolton to get us up to a possible 4th.
During that long run of draws it was as though clubs were using each other's tactics - flood the midfield, don't allow them time on the ball etc- what happened was confidence suddenly grew, we started passing and moving against Arsenal and our possession increased, which allowed our individual talent to show through. We have started to turn the tables on them, and that's all we needed
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