Man City 2-1 CHELSEA: Chelsea Make City Look Good
You get some results, like the mid-week game against Blackburn where you can just about live with defeat because you know the players have given it their all – and then there’s games like yesterday that are just too much to stomach.
Not the defeat itself because whilst losing never comes easy, as long as you can still hold your head up and say we gave it our best shot, then it’s at least more acceptable. No, I’m on about the way we lost. Not the poor refereeing decisions because at least Webb (as bad as he was) showed up, which is more than can be said for us.
Seriously, we can moan as much as we like but whilst Richards without a doubt handled in the area and got away with it, Adebayor’s own goal might never have happened if the officials had seen the ball come off Cole and not given the corner. Maybe if Citeh had responded to that by concentrating more on the ref than the rest of the game, Adebayor wouldn’t have had the opportunity to make it a goal per side but to be fair to them, they just got on with it and deservedly went in all square at the break.
Don’t get me wrong, I can’t stand Citeh and I was as gutted as the next man to see Carlos Tevez put his free-kick past the wall and Petr Cech but if Carvalho hadn’t needlessly had a second kick-out at the Argie midget’s back then we wouldn’t have been in that position in the first place.
Then came some more iffy reffing, with first Lescott wrestling John Terry to the floor in front of goal and getting away with it, then Toure with his hands all over Didier Drogba from the subsequent corner and still nothing given. In fact, it seemed the more they got away with, the more tactile they thought they’d be – and why not? – they were getting away with it all day anyway. But then, we were allowing them to get away with it as much as the officials were, we could and should have put a much better fight but Lampard’s missed (yes missed) penalty just about summed our performance.
Overall then, it’s fair to sat the mid-week exit has obviously pissed them right off, but instead of the ‘wounded animal’ you’d have expected to come out fighting after we at least battled our arses off mid-week, we turned up whingeing and whining like toothless little bitches. Ok, so Webb’s a cock of the highest order but bad decisions happen week-in-week-out in the Premier League and a side is either big enough to take it on the chin and get their heads together, or they’ll act like petulant, arrogant fuckers, and lose in the manner we did.
Both Ashley Cole and particularly Didier Drogba showed shades of their former selves most of us would rather not be reminded of – mouthing and bitching at every opportunity, Cole’s back turned to the ref, Drogba standing over an injured Bridge moaning about a nothing brush of the shoulder he’d somehow been ‘injured’ by earlier. Just embarrassing to watch really.
Fair enough, Citeh got away with fouls time and again whilst we were getting booked for some nothing challenges (oh and Carvalho’s a total dick for that needless kick on the Argie midget) but if we’re going to challenge for the title rather than fall apart like we did at exactly the same stage as last season, then our players need to drop the ‘victim’ attitude and fucking earn it.
TEAMS
CITY: Given, Richards (Onuoha 69), Toure, Lescott, Bridge (Kompany 76), De Jong, Barry, Wright-Phillips, Tevez, Robinho (Zabaleta 90), Adebayor.
Subs Not Used: Taylor, Johnson, Santa Cruz, Petrov.
Booked: Barry.
Goals: Adebayor 37, Tevez 56.
CHELSEA: Cech, Ivanovic, Carvalho (Belletti 63), Terry (Malouda 88), Ashley Cole, Essien, Ballack (Mikel 64), Lampard, Deco, Drogba, Anelka.
Subs Not Used: Hilario, Joe Cole, Zhirkov, Paulo Ferreira.
Booked: Terry, Carvalho, Belletti, Ivanovic, Ashley Cole, Deco.
Goals: Adebayor 8 og.
Ref: Howard Webb (S Yorkshire).
Filed under: Match report, Rants
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You guys need to really smell the coffee. you were well beaten by a side that is only just gelling together and has losy 1 all season. give some credit that the big 4 monopoly is over and recognise that the club who has ans has always had better and bigger support has let himself in.
Total 5hite, City were the best team on the day, ur like Wenger u lot, ungrateful in defeat
Lampard missed penalty……………… pmsl
u’ll win the league at a canter and deserve to on recent form, but show some balls and accept u lost on the day to the best side
First, it’s CITY not citeh, secondly you are a piss poor loser. Moaning like a woman about the ref, this that and the other. Chelsea got beat end of. You trying to find 1000 excuses is just pathetic.
I admire your honesty Chelsea D, in that you correctly state that some of your players (Drogba & Cole mainly) spend the latter part of the game expending more energy into foaming and spitting abuse than they did running. Drogba is one of the worlds best strikers at this moment in time, but when his head is in the same place as it was after 75mins yesterday, you’d be better placed by dragging the sulking baby off and replacing him with a proper professional. Cole, to a lesser degree is cut from the same cloth, and lost the plot around the same time. As a City fan sitting in the East Stand, I could sense that Chelsea were slowly losing a grip on the game. The comments from those around me were of a similar vein: Dogba, Cole and Terry have lost it and only a penalty would get them back in it. It was a “nailed-on” penalty, but Drogda almost made it look like a dive with a frankly ridiculous twisting motion in the opposite direction to the tackle (watch it again on MOTD/SKY repeats and you’ll see what I mean).
The comments regarding the referee show exactly why football is such a strange game – walking away after the match the majority of City fans were complaining about Webb’s decisions to book Barry for his first foul after letting Ivanovic get away with 4 first half fouls on Robinho! The decision to give Chelsea a corner when Cole clearly touched it last (and lead to the opener) was also given as an example of Webb’s poor performance in the eyes of the City fans. I don’t think there’s any doubt that the ball hit Richards elbow for our equaliser, but that said, I don’t think there’s any doubt that the goal was coming and that 1-1 HT was a fair reflection of the game.
With my light blue tinted specs, I’d say we were (for the first time in many many meetings) the better side. We’ve never been able to keep the Chelsea midfield as quiet before, but then, we’ve never had De Jong and Barry there before. De Jong, in my opinion, did what the brilliant Makelele did so well for Chelsea for many years: he stopped almost anything getting through.
I still think Chelsea are the best team in the Premiership by a country mile, and barring any major injuries, should win the league at a canter. Good luck for the rest of the season – particularly against our red friends!
Sorry, I don’t understand how anyone can complain about John Terry being pulled down in the area, considering the number of times he does that himself- he’s a hypocrite to be complaining about that.
And how can Ancelloti say Webb was wrong in awarding the freekick? Sure, Carvalho got the ball cleanly- but then he kicked Tevez in the back. Really poor sportsmanship from anyone, let alone a grown man in his 30s.
I think Chelsea are playing well, but no one can deny their discipline is atrocious. The way their players were acting, from whining and shouting at every decision, to the awful tackles, to refusing to back away to let City take their free kick, the number of (deserved) yellow cards, etc. Anyone Chelsea fan who is honest with themselves know this has been a problem with Chelsea for a long time and especially over the last couple of years, and it’s a shame because it takes away from their performances and has people talk about them for all of the wrong reasons. Like last season in the CL, people should have been talking about the incompetent refereeeing, but instead were talking about the really poor sportsmanship of Chelsea- the team makes themselves so unsympathetic that people begin to root against them.
Incredible honesty. Well done.
I think that we worked hard to close you down in the middle of the park and got some reward for our endeavour. That said it was incredibly unusual to see City getting the rub of the green and gaining from some dodgy refereeing but then refereeing decisions do tend to go in cycles.
My sky blue comrade Jensens left foot is absolutely bang on. Chelsea are by far the best team in the league at the moment and you should win the league at a canter.
I am getting concerned about some of these blogs though. The Arsenal blog I read after Carling Cup was very civil too. Did peace break out and someone forgot to tell me?
Your a joke acompanied by a long line of jokes making out your club played poorly when the truth is, just like Arsenal you came to conquer with arrogance thinking it would be a walk in the park only to find you were up against a City side bursting with the killer instinct.
Your chelsea were no weaker than the same Chelsea that faced Arsenal and you all damn well know it, you were simply outplayed and outclassed.
United will fall on city’s sword in the League Cup only they will have more to loose than the title.
City deserved to win.
as allready stated I admire your honesty about the handball and the corner these things have a way of leveling out but it’s about time we beat you it’s been a long time
As a neutral watching the match on the Tv, I would come to the following conclusions.
1) the better team won on the night and City comprehensively won the midfield battle with Lampard, Ballack and Deco being almost anonymous.
2) the referee had a good game under constant provocation by the Chelsea players, several of whom were lucky to be on the pitch at the end eg Beletti,Cole
3) Drogba would be an even better player if he stopped his play acting.
4) I still believe Chelsea will win the title provided they keep their heads
I have to say I agree with every word of Jenn’s post. Chelsea were out bossed by the Dutch national team’s “hoover” and a very good performance from Gareth Barry…who both closed down every chelsea midfielder when in possession of the ball. City owned the centre of the pitch and as a result Chelsea never really had a firm base to attack from. I think Chelsea are a fantastic team and Im certain will go on to win the league…but yesterday they were beaten by a team that were more focussed (for a change). Anyone saying city were lucky…obviously doesnt remember the fantastic interception of a goal bound header by carvalho….. and a clearance off the line earlier in the game (if forget who by and I havent seen the game on tv yet)…… If anything i would argue the Chelea goal was “lucky”.
Its funny that every match report seems to have more opposition fans commenting than chelsea fans…seriously though,i agree with most of your article,and most of jensen’s left foot(?)’s post too…not a match i enjoyed watching.hopefully apoel amd everton next week will be better…
Nearly gracious in defeat for 10 seconds there……..probably asking too much to give full credit to the opposition I guess.
If you think City got away with decisions how is it Belletti and Ivanovic stayed on the pitch!?
“I can’t stand Citeh…”, “It’s all the ref’s fault…” “They only won because we didn’t turn up”. My God, I thought I was on the rags blog for a minute there!
PS: De Jong tamed your midfield, SWP toasted Cashley and Tevez had your backline in a panic. We’re not a match over a season for you yet…..possibly not even over two legs……but we’re coming, and you know it
It’s not often as a City fan I get to see us beat two sets of cockney whiners in one week
Come to think of it, it’s only the first time I can remember such a thing, but then my memory of games prior to the 1930′s is sketchy
Look, seriously now, I can understand your disappointment at losing but don’t lose your sense of perspective. You have a superb side with power, drive, skill, creativity and bottle and surely nothing short of a disaster will stop you winning the premier League this season and maybe even the CL.
Yesterday was one of those pretty rare occasions where you came up against a side and a stadium full of fans that were seriously ‘up for it’ and with enough skill and firepower to win a really tight contest. We do not kid ourselves that we are a better side then CFC, but we were deserving on the night and will get better. The question is, will CFC get better? I believe that City are here to stay and not as bit part players.
I was shocked at how poor Webb was. I generally think that he is one of the best (if not the best) official in the Prem. I’d be interested to see if he didn’t see RIchards’ hand ball or if he thought it was a case of self-protection? I think either call would be incorrect but wouldn’t mind hearing that.
I didn’t see Carvalho’s card as him kicking into Tevez’s back. It looked to me like he cleared the ball, Tevez ran into him and he was trying ot land on his feet. Belleti’s yellow seemed a bit silly too as both he and Bridge were sliding for a 50/50 ball. Ivanovic’s was horrible – I don’t even think he touched Adebayor. Then two minutes later he gets body-slammed by Tevez with only a foul given? I was half-asleep for parts of the first half, so perhaps it was the persistent fouling that Jensens mentioned Ivanovic was carded for, but it seemed like a soft yellow to me.
Regardless of the officiating, these were three points that City deserved and Chelsea did not. As soon as Frank hesitated you knew he wasn’t going to score. Shay Given does not get nearly as much credit as he deserves – he is one of the best keepers in the world.
I think Carlo needs to take another look at his first choice midfield. He seems to prefer Lampard on the left, Deco at the point, Ballack on the right, and Essien at the base. When things were going good I thought this was a great lineup because they could overlap and cover multiple positions. But that midfield was very underwhelming in both this game and the United one. Lampard is wasted on the left, particularly when we have two very talented, very expensive options on the bench in Malouda and Zhirkov. Maybe Malouda on the left, Lampard on the point, Essien on the right, Mikel at the base?
At any rate, I’m glad to see that we took care of business against United and Arsenal so that we can afford one slip-up. Time to get things together for Everton next week.
Steve Heywood – where have I not accepted Citeh were the best team on the day? Not that that’s much to brag about considering we didn’t turn up. Oh and Lampard didn’t ‘miss’, it was saved.
Henriksen – yet another blue nose who seems to have missed the point made that refereeing decisions aside our players had themselves to blame for the defeat.
CiTyBlUe – what are you on? Firstly, Chelsea were piss poor yesterday, so I wouldn’t start getting ahead of yourself just yet. Mind you, if you’ve convinced yourself United in the CC is a walkover, it’s probably too late for you already!
why are the ‘fans’ of the sky 4 teams so classless in defeat, read the stats lads, city had more possession, more shots, (off and on target) and were good for the win. accept that we won on merit, dont blame the ref, it makes you look like fools.
You hate City (please try and spell City correctly in future C-I-T-Y, illiteracy only serves to make you look even more of a nob than you are), fair enough. Kind of ironic coming from a Chelsea supporter though… man up and admit that you were beaten fair and square rather than taking a leaf from your manager’s book and bleating about the referee.
Oh, and the reason half your team got booked was that they richly deserved it. Except for Carvalho and Belleti who should have had straight reds, their petulance (see also Essien here) was hilarious to watch from our point of view – brilliant to see how brittle the so called ‘champions elect’ really are once they come under a bit of pressure. Anyway, more power to Howard Webb’s elbow – let’s hope it happens more often rather than the more usual scenario that goes along the lines of ‘But you can’t book me, I’m the England captain’.
Anyway, enjoy the rest of your Sunday, I know I will.
I too think that Webb made some terrible calls, but was right on in the Richards incident…There was no handball the ball was rocketed in by SWP and he had his hands up near his chest…
Carlo needed to start Joe Cole and Malouda over slow and aging players like Ballack and Deco…City’s midfield was too quick for the aging midfield…
Goddamn we were poor……no really we were shit poor. I partly blame the ref but I blame the players and CA more. How the hell can ypu let Deco play the whole game? What did he do to deserve such credit? CA must realise Deco aint build ofr EPL and that he has no business in Chelsea……you have Malouda and Zirkov ffs and yet you let Deco play for 90min? Im sorry bit he must be blind……Scolari atleast noticed that Deco was no good after a while. Plus you cant use the diamond everytime….you just cant. Eventhough we didnt turn up if Drog had takes his chances we would win……but City deserved it for sure…….absolutely inept performance from the lads and CA was shit yesterday.
Believe me I know what defeat tastes like as much as anyone having followed City for ever, and I appreciate you don`t feel your side perhaps gave enough, but to try and deflect from the fact your lads were simply out fought, out thought, and ultimately out played does you no credit.
City supporters generally have been hugely complimentary to Chelsea over recent years, and have recognised the truly world class unit you guys have in place. Sadly it seems you can`t be big enough to admit and recognise that City were absolutely terrific on the day and deservedly won a great game.
Like the rest of the usual suspects you`re going to be forced eventually to appreciate that City are back.
Show some class
Fair Article .. was myself pissed more at chelsea players than the ref or the opponent ..
To be frank referee decisions CANNOT be looked at with disfavour in the current scenario … coz they are happening everywhere .. the best is as u put it .. get on with it and play ur game .. the fact is .. we did not play our game on the day ..
And to all the muggers out there cribbing abt out title credentials .. if u notice the table .. we are still atop!!
City guys .. u guys say u are back eh?
Back from where pray??..
.. win something first tho .. and then we shall talk .. !!
And please avoid selective reading .. the article fairly points out that city played better than chelsea ..
Show some class .. ofc .. if u are ready to see it .. !!