Full time: Manchester City 2-0 Chelsea.
That's that. Nothing more to report from here folks. That's their fourth home win over Chelsea in a row. Thanks for all the emails and tweets folks, sorry if I didn't get around to using yours. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.
92 mins: Bye, bye Silva, hello Lescott.
90 mins: Toure Yaya has been awarded the man of the match award. Here, here say all of us. Aguero has come off and Nasri has come on. There is four more minutes of this to be added on.
87 mins: Go put the kettle on. That's game over, folks.
85 mins: Goal! Man City 2-0 Chelsea (Tevez) Oh wow! What a goal! Aguero powers forward but loses the ball on the edge of the box in a tangle with some Chelsea defenders. It breaks to Silva who slides it across to the waiting Tevez. The striker puts boot to leather from about 20-odd yards out, Ivanovic turns his back on it and Cech is left with no chance whatsoever. Lucky strike? Lovely strike.
83 mins: The build-up to the Milk Cup final has started elsewhere on this website. Join my colleague Daniel Harris for that by clicking the word here.
81 mins: He hasn't scored since before Xmas 1984 but Rafa reckons that Fernando Torres is the man to save this game for Chelsea. He takes the place of Mikel.
78 mins: Chelsea, finally, play some good football around the City box with Juan Mata sending Oscar through. However, Oscar's though is heavier than a Sunday roast with extra gravy and extra pudding and the ball goes out and back into City's possession. The home side are doing their best to slow down the game now.
75 mins: Just saw a replay of Hart's save. It's great, really great. Go see it. NOW!
73 mins: City are still the better team here, attacking with verve. Chelsea, on the other hand, are struggling to make any real chances, or even a chance of a chance, or even a chance of a chance of a chance, or even ... well you get the point. They're doing nothing up front.
70 mins: "Too sweet? Too much icing? Are you kidding me it's cake!" froths at the mouth Reid Finlayson. "And it's free! First rule of fight club is never to say no to cake."
67 mins: Lampard has been hooked and Moses has come on. He was very, very quiet today was Lampard. Oh wait, there is another sub coming on. Off goes Hazard, on goes Oscar. He was very, very quiet today was Hazard.
63 mins: Goal! Man City 1-0 Chelsea (Yaya Toure) Silva holds the ball up, close to the end line, turns well and lays the ball back to Toure on the left edge of the box, as you face the goal. The midfielder's first touch is a delight as it sees him sweep the ball by a few Chelsea defenders. He then places a lovely little finish into the far bottom corner of the net. That's nice, yo. By the way, just before that goal, Ramires missed a great chance for Chelsea after one of the best counterattacks of the game.
60 mins: The camera pans to Sinclair, sitting on the bench. Remember him? Wonder how he feels today. Chris Ross has some thoughts on Nasri too. Here's what he has typed out. "Nasri is just another player who Wenger has made look better than he truly is. Arsenal are full of them. Abou Diaby, for instance. Arsenal fans are always convinced that, were he to stay fit and get a run of games, he'd be ace. I'd agree. If he was playing for QPR, say. Were he at United, he'd barely get a match, Anderson-style."
56 mins: Ageuro is getting into some good positions of late and the newest one has seen him just clip a shot over Cech and over the bar after a wonderful ball through from Milner, I think. Eddie Robson is with me on the cake thing: "I don't like sweet icing either. I usually use marzipan. Coffee is a good shout - a bit of strong coffee adds a real depth of flavour to a chocolate brownie."
53 mins: Rodwell is hooked, Tevez is the man who replaces him. Aguero has gone left, Silva has gone right and Tevez has gone up front. This game has exploded into life.
51 mins: MISSED PENALTY! A ball down the field sees Ba bearing down on the City goal. Joe Hart doesn't need to come out – Toure might have had Ba covered and Ba was going wide anyway – but come out he does. Ba, doing the oldest trick in the striker's book, leaves his foot in, Hart takes him down and a penalty is correctly awarded. Lampard steps up, this should be goal number 200, but Hart dives low and right and he keeps it out. A fantastic save that.
47 mins: The first attack of the second half goes to City. Silva gets some space down the right and puts in a cross that is just a tad too far behind Aguero for the striker to do anything dangerous with it. Silva hasn't been that good this season, has he? Which should explain why City haven't been that good, eh?
46 mins No subs to report of just yet, in case you were wondering.
45 mins: Right. We're back. The cake was a bit too sweet for my liking. Too much icing. I prefer something with coffee in it.
Half-time complaints department: Does anyone else want to smash their screen when those lame Ladbrokes ads come on? No? Really? Just me? Ah well. I wish they still made ads like this.
Half-time stat department: If Man City (14%) had matched Manchester United's chance conversion, they would have scored an extra 22 goals this season.
Half-time email department: It's a long one and it's from Basil Ibrahima in defence of Samir Nasri: "This Nasri talk is revisionist rubbish. He was by miles the league's best player at the start of that season. We'd have to believe that not just the French set up, but Ferguson, Mancini and Wenger don't know their stuff to believe that he's not as great as Mancini's making out. There was lots of matches where he was THE difference, in the absence of Fabregas, even as we must concede that the understanding they had between them was often magical. Players get demotivated, sometimes set up changes don't work for them, and everyone who watches football can see that something's not quite right at City. Even players we know are very good, like Tevez, Silva and Yaya, aren't playing as well as we know they can/should."
Half-time: Man City 0-0 Chelsea. Nothing more to report from those two minutes. The best chance of the match so far fell to a defender, Nastasic, from a set-piece, which probably tells you all you need to know about this game so far. Back in five after I investigate this cake business.
45 mins: A MASSIVE cake has just arrived in the office; no idea why. There are two minutes of added on time to go.
42 mins: Now, this could be interesting. Zabaleta takes down Cole at the corner of the City box – getting a yellow for his troubles and persistent fouling. Chelsea's delivery has been poor from set-pieces so far but this one could be different, this one could a contender. It doesn't even beat the first defender.
39 mins: Some very nice one-two ballin' around the box by the Blues sees Zabaleta wind his leg up, ready to do his best impression of Rafael against QPR yesterday. However, instead of his strike going into the top corner and Zabaleta winning the goal of the season with a sheepish smile as he collects the award, the ball hits a defender and nothing comes of it.
36 mins: There's a whole lot of hoofing going on (but not much football). Ramires follows Rodwell into the yellow book after catching Yaya in the knee with a meaty effort of a tackle. Yaya's limping but he plays on.
33 mins: More action down the Chelsea left-hand side. Yaya gets the ball and powers his way past Cole, he really is a monster when he gets going. Chelsea recover, however, and put the ball out for a corner. Rodwell gets on the end of said corner but does nothing with it. Ryan Dunne has been in touch, by thew way, to explain to all of us what shooglie peg means. "A shooglie peg is one that not firm and solid and is therefore liable to fall off. Sir Alex Ferguson's jacket (synedoche for managerial authority) is on the most secure, 25-year old of pegs. A manager facing the sack (like, say, Chelsea's latest incumbent) has in contrast a shooglie peg."
30 mins: Back to subject of Nasri. Here's Felix Wood's thoughts. "David Acaster may sound like a giant, but his calling Arsenal a small pond is pure naughtiness. The simple fact is that he was never very good. Arsenal fans – and I am not one – seemed more angry at the manner of his leaving than being sad to see him leave." Rodwell, meanwhile, has picked up the game's first yellow for persistent fouling and just headed over from close to Cech's goals after a cross by Zabaleta. Busy boy is Jack.
27 mins: "Just how can a team who have spent so many millions, and could in theory spend many more, start with Kolo Toure, Nastasic, Rodwell and Milner?" wonders Matt Dony . "None of them are bad players, and they can all add something, but does that really constitute almost half of a championship winning outfield?" Emmmmmm, probably not, no. Back to the game, Chelsea have continued their pressure on City and won a free-kicks around the City box. Lampard takes the latest one and blasts it at least 1,000,000 miles wide. At least.
24 mins: Chelsea have started to play with a bit more verve now and they have even managed to get within sight of the City goal. Still no shots to get Hart's gloves dirty though. Eventually, City clear the Chelsea pressure but that is much better from the London lads.
21 mins: "Having been to a Kaiser Chief gig last night, I have decided to apply their songs to this match," says Sam Cooper. "Starting with Everyday I Love You Less and Less, which can be perfectly applied to Chelsea fans' feeling towards Torres," he then adds with a honk or two. City need to convert this pressure they are having into some goals.
18 mins: This has been all City so far – Chelsea have yet to have a shot on goal. They are pouring through the Chelsea midfield like a powerful river through a badly-built barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Aguero is the latest to miss a decent effort to put City in the lead
15 mins: Once again, City are having some joy down the Chelsea left-hand side. Some nice play with Zabaleta and Toure sees them win a corner. From that corner, Silva whips one in and Nastasic has all the time and space in the world to put his side one up. However, he closes his eyes, fails to get a good connection, and heads it down. Nonetheless, Cech pulls off a decent save, though it wouldn't have counted as someone was pulled up for a foul.
13 mins: The City fans are singing that Champiole song. Might as well belt it out while they can. Simon McMahon, meanwhile, has been in touch. "Who'd have thunk that a February match up between last season's English and European champions would end up being a battle for the minor places? Lose today and, as we say up here, the jaicket of Mancini or Benitez will be on a very shoogly peg." No, I have no idea what a "shoogly peg" is either.
9 mins: Milner, of all players, shows some silky skills down the bottom right of the pitch near the Chelsea line getting past a few Chelsea defenders. He puts in a decent cross but Aguero can't make anything of it.
7 mins: David Acaster has his own theory on why Nasri has not been up to his best this season. "Nasri looks like he has a "Big fish in a little pond" attitude. He liked being half of the Nasri-Fabregas axis that Arsenal turned around. He seems to have huge confidence issues now he's surrounded by better players. His response to being criticised before Euro 2012 suggested lack of self confidence too." Added to this, I would say, is that Mancini didn't seem to trust him last season, and ended up over-playing Silva as a result, which won't have helped his confidence. Nasri's, not Silva's.
4 mins: Southampton are already a goal to the good at Newcastle, if you are interested in that sort of thing. Here in Manchester, City have been on top so far but nothing of any great note to report of just yet.
2 mins: And there is the first effort of the game. A throw-in from the right leads to Milner setting up Yaya Toure, who aims for the bottom left corner of Cech's goal from the edge of the box. The shot is devoid of power, however, and the Chelsea keeper cradles it as softly as he would a new-born lamb.
1 min: Hands have been shook (like half-way crooks), shoulders have been bumped and mascots have been led out and then sent back in. All of that means we are ready to go. City are dressed in blue and playing left to right; Chelsea are dressed in black with flashes of yellow and doing the opposite to City.
13:26 Andy Mills has been chewing his nails over the Manchester City midfield but he has stopped that long enough to type out the first email of the day: "Never mind the defence the central midfield looks pedestrian with Garcia and Rodwell. The one saving grace is the Frenchman isn't starting! Come on City." Andy has a point there.
13:23 Maybe this jazzy little number, will get you going.
13:19 Sooooooooooooo, anyone out there?
13:15 Did you read Daniel Taylor's interview with Mancini? You should have, the City manager had some very interesting things to say, not least on Samir Nasri:
"I think Samir has fantastic qualities. With his quality, he should always play well. Every game he could be the difference. A player of this quality could be one of the best players in Europe. But it's not happening. Sometimes a player thinks it's enough what they did the year before and doesn't understand that every day they should improve. If you are a top player you know you can improve until the last day of your career but sometimes you get players who think it is not important to work and this is their worst mistake. Samir can do better than this year. He is a top player but he has not been playing at his level."
Any City fans out there with an opinion on this?
13:05 The teams are in. Terry does not make the starting line-up and he will be joined on the bench by Fernando Torres after Benítez, rightly, decided that Ba would have a better chance of scoring against the Manchester City defence. And what a defence that is. City fans look away now: without Kompany, your central defensive pairing is Kolo Toure and Nastasic; doesn't really inspire confidence, does it? Jack Rodwell makes his first start since September. Those teams in full are:
Manchester City: Hart, Zabaleta, Kolo Toure, Nastasic, Clichy, Garcia, Milner, Rodwell, Silva, Yaya Toure, Aguero
Subs: Pantilimon, Lescott, Kolarov, Nasri, Sinclair, Tevez, Dzeko
Chelsea: Cech; Ivanovic, Cahill, D Luiz, Cole; Mikel, Lampard (c); Ramires, Mata, Hazard; Ba
Subs: Turnbull, Azpilicueta, Terry, Bertrand, Oscar, Moses, Torres
12:47 You may, or may not, have noticed that those pesky tech problems that plagued us here in GU Central yesterday have yet to be fixed, despite the computer nerds staying up all night and writing big, complicated numbers on a blackboard in an effort to solve it. Ho hum. So this means, once more, we are unable to use our fancy-pants minute-by-minute tool and that we have to go back, way back, to the old-fashioned way of doing things. Still, let's not let that get in the way of our fun, eh?
Good afternoon one and all
Remember those ambrosial days of 2009? Lower energy bills, AAA credit ratings, Susan Boyle belting out I Dreamed a Dream, Mark Hughes in charge of Manchester City? Wait, wait, wait, hold on just a minute. Mark Hughes was in charge of Manchester City? That Mark Hughes? No, no no. You must be joking. Oh, wait hold on a second, there's a call coming through. Hello? Oh, it's your cranium; it's got some space to rent. There is not a snowballs he was in charge. Well he was. And it was in 2009 that he lost his job. What did it for him? Well coming towards the end of the year, he drew seven games in succession and the lads in charge said that's enough and got Bobby Mancini instead.
Since then City have been doing pretty sweet. They've played some beauty ball, conquered the Cup and won the Premier League in an ending as unpredictable as The Usual Suspects. That's all in the past though and the present is proving to be rather painful indeed. This season, they couldn't make it past the group stages in the Champions League, said hello and waved goodbye to the League Cup in the third round and following the recent draws with QPR and Liverpool and the loss to Southampton, it seems they are out of the race for the Premier League too. Ooopsy. If they were to lose or draw today, it will be the first time they have gone four Premier League games without a win since Hughes was the given that bulky boot to the bottom.
Is Mancini close to that same boot? He doesn't think so and he had a bullish response when our very own Daniel Taylor asked him about his future come the season's end. "Since we started to win, in May 2011, Manchester City are the best team in England, are they not? We won three trophies, Manchester United two, Chelsea two, Liverpool one. No other team has won more than us ... I don't understand it [speculation about his future]. I could if we had won nothing for three years. It would be difficult for me to stay then. I couldn't stay in a team where I wasn't doing a good job. But I have done a good job here."
We'll have to wait and see if his respective employers agree with the Italian's assessment but for now the stark reality is that City are staring a 15-point gap between them and the top of the table and, unless they win the FA Cup, a trophyless season full-square in the face. Maybe they should have held onto Nigel de Jong.
It may not be all rosy smiles and unicorn kisses for Mancini right now but it could be a whole lot worse, he could be Rafa Benítez. It was 91 days ago that Rafa's reign began against the same opposition he faces today. Back then the fans greeted him with undiluted vitriol and not much has changed since. How he carries on in the face of such opposition, man will never know. But while the boos have rung out and Chelsea have exited two cup competitions under Benítez – we won't count the Big Cup – not everything is rotten in the state of Stamford Bridge (though Fernando Torres' one-goal-in14-games form certainly is).
Their form over the last six games – 11 points from a possible 18 – is only bettered by Manchester United and Tottenham; the same goes for their away form since Benítez took over. They also have the ever-sublime Juan Mata (who really is a joy to behold), Branislav Ivanovic (largely) been rock-like, has been while Frank Lampard in the form of his life. The midfielder has scored 11 goals in his 13 Premier League starts for Chelsea this season and is aiming to score in five consecutive league appearances for only the third time in his entire career. Plus if they win today, they will be just one teensy, teeny, toy, trifling, trivial point off second place.
All of this when you mix it together should make for a cracking encounter. As soon as the teams are in, you'll be the first to know, pinky promise.
He's a big chelsea fan too!
- ken , SW London, 25/2/2013 18:46
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