So Manchester City returned from London empty handed this time and all around the Footballing world cheers for Chelsea rang out. It wasn't that long ago that it would have been Chelsea that title challengers would be wishing fail but such is magnitude of the ascendancy of the noisy neighbours that has seen this dramatic turnaround in such a short space of time.
Mancini certainly went with attack in mind chosing to start with both Aguero and Balotelli along with the little magician, David Silva. Meanwhile Chelsea boss, AVB, was feeling the pressure after a run of poor results that had only recently had been stemmed.
Two minutes in and he must have been wondering what was going on as not only were City the most aggressive team going forward but Curry connoisseur Mario Balotelli opened the scoring for the visitors. Sergio Aguero is released down the flank and gets past three Chelsea defenders before setting the ball to Balotelli who evades the challenge of Ivanovic and Petr 'Darth Vader' Cech to slot the ball in a now empty net.
Mancinis men were certainly up for the game and out of the blocks quickly. Aguero went close on a couple of occasions and dispossesed on another as the opening ten minutes firmly belonged to the visitors.
Then with quarter of an hour on the clock there was what could be called one of the game changers. With the referee, Mark Clattenburg, only yards away Manchester City playmaker, David Silva was brought down in the box after a duping a bewildered Bosingwa into sticking out a leg. The referee was not impressed and simply told the Spanish International to 'get back up'. At that point, had City been given the penalty and converted it then you would have to say the stuffing would have been well and truely knocked out of Chelsea.
Chelsea began to gain more of a grip in proceedings and with a little over ten minutes from the half they equalised through Meireles. John Terry set ex City striker Daniel Sturridge down the left flank who, after getting the better of Clichy, whipped the ball across to a waiting Meireles, who turned it in. The first half would end as it had started, all square.
As the second half started the tide of dominance had started to swing into the home teams favour and within the opening fifteen minutes of the second half it was Chelseas game to lose. Clichy opened the second half with a booking after a foul on Sturridge and when he brings down Ramires ten minutes later Mr Clattenburg issued the red to see City reduced to ten men with more than half an hour to go.
That said, Chelsea still looked reluctant to go forward. Toure came on for Aguero and then DeJong came on for Silva as Mancini looked to escape the Bridge with a point. Chelsea were not forcing the issue though despite their numerical advantage and if wasn't for the penalty call with less than ten minutes left then a point would have been the most likely conclusion. The penalty, although there is no debate as to whether the ball hit Lescotts hand, there is contention as to whether it was deliberate. We have all seen similar incidents given and others not given. On this occasion it was given and dispatched to ensure Manchester City's first league defeat. Truth be told, even with less men City looked good going forward.
Hopefully Mancini can rally the troops before the Sunday game against Arsenal and then we can look back at Monday night as one of those blips on what still has the potential to be a very good season for the blue side of Manchester.
Written By: PA Cityboy (www.facebook.com/pacityboy)
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