Chelsea's First Test Ends In Defeat

Manchester City line-up: Hart, Kompany, Zabaleta, K.Toure, Boyata (Boateng, 88'), Milner, Barry, Silva (A.Johnson, 77'), De Jong, Y.Toure, Tevez (Adebayor, 86')
Chelsea line-up: Cech, Ivanovic, Cole, Terry, Alex, Essien, Ramires (McEachran, 80'), Mikel (Zhirkov, 68'), Malouda, Drogba (Sturridge, 75'), Anelka

Today's lunch-time kick-off saw Chelsea face their first real test of the 2010/2011 Premier league season as they took a trip to the City of Manchester Stadium. With Managers Ancelotti and Mancini good friends from their Serie A and Italy days, no-one was sure how this game would play out. The first half was very much like a Serie A tie to start off with; both teams comfortable in possession but couldn't break down the opponent's defence. This went on for the first half hour of the game until Chelsea had a chance when Ivanovic headed against the crossbar from a corner, his second effort was then saved by Hart. This opened up the game which was also helped by the leniency of referee Andre Marriner; the game turned quite physical and a few skirmishes started to occur but Marriner decided not to pull up on any when another referee could have shown yellow cards. However the score remained 0-0 at half-time.

The second half continued where the first left off with both teams comfortable in possession but still unable to break either defence down. Chelsea relied on long range efforts from Essien whereas City were trying their luck with Tevez. The first time City opened Chelsea up was just before the hour mark when they broke three against three with Tevez in possession, he used his teammates as decoys allowing himself room to get into the box and put City ahead. With Chelsea behind for the first time in the Premiership all eyes were on Ancelotti and his tactics, which seemed a little bewildering. City continued to create chances and Chelsea were forcing more crossing opportunities. However Chelsea had started the game with a holding midfielder and despite being a goal down and needing to attack they kept that holding midfielder throughout their substitutes. But maybe the most bewildering thing about Ancelotti's decisions was to bring on Danny Sturridge in replace of Drogba, who is their undoubtedly their best striker and renowned for scoring late goals. This left the score to remain 1-0 to City and to now put question marks over Chelsea in the big tests.