Chelsea v Man City: Big Game Report

After his new manager's baptism of fire
Abramovich might be regretting his decision
(Courtesy of Free-ers - Flickr)

A cautious and anti-climactic affair, we shouldn’t have expected any different from two teams who really didn’t want to lose. For the away side Manchester City it was important to get over the mid-week disappointment of going out of the Champions League and ensure that their unbeaten run in the league didn’t come to an end. For the home side a loss would have caused a mutiny in the stands, although you might argue, with Benitez being greeted with boos and an applause for Di Matteo on 16 minutes, that the crowd is already mutinous; more against the chairman that the maligned manager.

The opening twenty minutes gave us very little to talk about, both teams started the match without any strong attacking desire, playing their way into the game and trying to draw out their opponents. The most interesting point was probably when Chelsea fans gave a standing ovation on 16 minutes for Roberto Di Matteo, for that was the number he wore when he scored his FA Cup winning goal, in record time, for The Blues almost 16 years ago. It was City who controlled the game more than the home side, and it was City, after 21 minutes, who created the first real chance of the game. They were allowed to play the ball around the edge of the Chelsea box and Zabaleta put in a decent cross for David Silva, who could only head the ball over from 8 yards out, when he really should have at least tested Cech. Zabaleta himself had a good chance, just over 15 minutes later, when he picked up an interception on the half way line, played a one-two with Edin Dzeko and found himself on the edge of the Chelsea box but could only blast his shot straight at Cech. Just a few minutes before half time it was City again who threatened to break the deadlock, this time Sergio Aguero the culprit of poor finishing. City again were allowed to pass their way into a decent crossing position without facing any Chelsea resistance, and when the cross came in Dezko headed the ball back across to Aguero who ignored the first rule of attacking heading (head it downwards) and sent a tame header straight into the hands of the grateful, and probably quite surprised, Petr Cech. Directly from this Chelsea had a good breakaway opportunity when Oscar ran the ball to the edge of the City box and found Torres who held onto the ball for too long and eventually did nothing with it, instead of giving it straight back to Oscar. It is amazing to see how Torres, such a perfect striker at Liverpool, has lost almost all of his attacking instinct.

After the half time break Chelsea started playing with much more intensity and the fans started to get behind them a bit more, perhaps remembering that this was a football match and not a protest against the chairman, and that the sacking of the manager was not directly the fault of the players in front of them. With just over 15 second half minutes gone Fernando Torres had the best Chelsea chance yet, Juan Mata crossing to Oscar who mis-controlled and it fell to Torres who, from 15 yards out, could only manage to drive his left-footed strike over the bar, the Fernando Torres of old would not only have found the target but also the back of the net, nonetheless it was encouraging attacking play from the point of view of the home side. Manchester City seemed to have been muted by this surprising Chelsea resurgence and created very little of their own for most of the second half and as a started to sit back more and more. This led to a stalemate of a match with the look of two teams who had already qualified from a group stage of some tournament and were happy to play out a final dead rubber. It was not until the last 10 minutes that both teams realised that a win might be nice and we started to see the sort of end-to-end football which I had hoped to see all game. Ashley Cole fizzed a left-footed shot which was comfortably tipped over by Joe Hart (for which, unbelievably, no corner was given) and Matija Nastasic had a free header from a corner for City, but you could hardly argue that either of these were anything more than half-chances. Probably the biggest talking point of the second half came with just seconds remaining when Balotelli was taken out by David Luiz and while he might have been looking for a foul, as he was not going to get the ball, he certainly didn’t deserve the yellow card he received for diving. It is good to see referees clamping down on diving, just not in the clumsy way which Chris Foy applied the ruling here. It says a lot about the game that this was one of the more interesting points and it was almost a relief for both sides when Chris Foy brought an end to an affair as damp as the weather, to more boos from the home crowd.

Aguero - Missed a good chance
(Courtesy of CoreyAdamCrowley - Flcikr)

To be honest I was amazed to see that MOTD2 managed to get 8 minutes of match footage out of this game, and watching their coverage back there was a lot of filler involved. Of all the statistics you will read about this match there is probably none more arresting than the fact that Man City completed almost twice as many passes as Chelsea (118 to Chelsea’s 67) at Stamford Bridge. This is a worrying statistic for Rafa Benitez, who may not face many more difficult matches than this one, but will be looking for a team boasting three of the best attacking midfielders in the league do much better with possession than they did yesterday. Benitez praised his players’ work ethic after the game, pointing out, truthfully, that this was not an easy game against an unbeaten side who went into the weekend top of the league, but he will be well aware of the near impossible job that faces him this season. Roberto Mancini was far less happy, saying that his team “lost 2 points” and, looking at the chances that his side created, it is hard to argue with him.

There is nothing much for either side to take from this game, who both would have been happy with a point before the match started (and it almost looked like they had made this agreement and just decided to play the game out) and they will  now look ahead to games coming up to give themselves opportunities to take the top spot from Manchester United. With regards to the Premier League table this draw has done much more for City, who are within 1 point of rivals United, than for Chelsea, who have now fallen 5 points behind the Red Devils.