*** City v Chelsea - Official Match Thread ***

[Nigels Tackle]

Had a job done on us tonight. Chelsea better on the night & worth the win.

Too many absentees, both via injury and on the pitch Im afraid. Baffling to select Naatasic & also still puzzled why Demichelis is played im midf rather than Milner.

Negredo & Dzeko ineffective & we should have gone 5 in midf to match them Mourinho did his homework & we need to learn from it.

Win on saturday & it looks better and we need some positive injury news for once. A lengthy absence for Ferna truly fucls us over

Agree. According to SSN Ferni out for a month.
Demichelis did Ok for a while but ran out of steam after 30 mins. Need to play Miller or Rodwell there as they would have shown more energy.
For all Maureen's bleating about our big squad it is looking a bit thin at the moment. We don't look the same team with injuries to 2 or 3 of our top players.
MP needs to get things right to put these fuckers back in their place in the FA cup game.

no wonder we had a private jet fuelled and ready for take off to porto
this is bad news

[feedthegreek]

just been reading on line man evening news, pellegrini said milner had only started training the day before the match also rodwell out for a month, so hed no choice to play demichellis in midfield, also garcia injured.

[phips]

Im amazed MP only made one substitution. At times Yaya was having to look after the whole centre midfield. It makes you realise the importance of Ferdi.

there was no one else to sub in....Clichy, Boyata, Panti?

Milner and Rodwell were injured.

[Wonderwall]

Im amazed MP only made one substitution. At times Yaya was having to look after the whole centre midfield. It makes you realise the importance of Ferdi.

there was no one else to sub in....Clichy, Boyata, Panti?

Milner and Rodwell were injured.

Yes Clichy and push Kolarov forward

[Tokyo Blue]

utter domination.

Shots
CITY 25 Chelsea 18 (from http://www.bbc.co.uk)

How can a team have 25 shots on goal and be "utterly dominated"?

[Original Dub]

utter domination.

Demichelis is a shitty midfielder and a horrible passer. Nastasic is garbage. Both need to be sold, along with Garcia.

Yaya was our best non-keeper out there but, as such, he was gassed early on.

Chelsea defended great and pressed well and created more going forward with 4 than most would've expected.

hopefully this helps some of here realize that we arent the new Bayern and dumb threads like "we only have 4 hard games left" can go die.

(and that's why you dont play Aguero vs Tottenham. not with a game like this on the horizon)

23 games, 20 wins, two draws and you come to the conclusion that we are not the new bayern because of one defeat?

Excellent.

[City64]

Cant believe some of the shit Demichelis is getting on here ? He was asked to do a job and he did an awfull lot of work and made some great tackles . We are lacking in midfield with the injuries , hopefully Milner will start against Norwich and Sunderland but boy do we need Fernandinho back asap !

[Cocacolajojo1]

Cant believe some of the shit Demichelis is getting on here ? He was asked to do a job and he did an awfull lot of work and made some great tackles . We are lacking in midfield with the injuries , hopefully Milner will start against Norwich and Sunderland but boy do we need Fernandinho back asap !

I especially liked it when he walked away from Willian when Willian was standing in our penalty area and seconds later had a shot on goal. Masterclass from Demi.

[Beefymcfc]

Maureen out-thought Pellers, simple as that.

[carl_feedthegoat]

Maureen out-thought Pellers, simple as that.

Maureen had all his players available...Pellers didnt....simple as that.

[Beefymcfc]

Maureen out-thought Pellers, simple as that.

Maureen had all his players available...Pellers didnt....simple as that.

We were at home, we still had a squad to at least put up a fight. Simple as that.

[carl_feedthegoat]

Maureen out-thought Pellers, simple as that.

Maureen had all his players available...Pellers didnt....simple as that.

We were at home, we still had a squad to at least put up a fight. Simple as that.

We put up a fight, we lost due to injuries...don't believe the myth that we have world beaters to cover world beaters.

For fucks sake.

[bigblue]

We were at home, we still had a squad to at least put up a fight. Simple as that.

We put up a fight, we lost due to injuries...don't believe the myth that we have world beaters to cover world beaters.

For fucks sake.

Not only did we put up a fight, we had 3 chances before they scored (1 of which should have been a goal 95% of the time) to take the lead. Had we taken our opportunities, it would have forced chelsea to change tactics, opening them up at the back.

As Pellegrini has said multiple times this season, there is a extremely small difference between winning and losing at the top level.

[gmercer1]

Pellers out.....Gollum in. Only way forward

[Beefymcfc]

Maureen out-thought Pellers, simple as that.

Maureen had all his players available...Pellers didnt....simple as that.

We were at home, we still had a squad to at least put up a fight. Simple as that.

We put up a fight, we lost due to injuries...don't believe the myth that we have world beaters to cover world beaters.

For fucks sake.

I'm sensing a 'Licker' stance coming on ;-)

We had injuries yes, but to believe that Demi could hold the threat of Chelsea's midfield was just nonsense, but then to not rein him in and allowing him to jump in at every opportunity was just bizarre.

And for those that said we had chances, I thought we were well on top in the first 15-20 until Maureen spooted the weak link. After that it became one hell of a grizz and I'm still trying to work out why he played the full 90.

I like Pellers, he's a touch of class but when you come up against a team of Chelsea's ability then you have to look at it, especially with injuries, and tailor your plan accordingly. Last night he knew of our limitations, we all did, but chose to not change anything of our play. Nothing wrong with that at all but for me we should have covered the bases and at least given some thought to who we were playing, instead of ignoring the qualities of others.

Just my thoughts.

Now sack the cunt!

[tc6828]

No wonder Pellegrini has got such a shit record against Maureen his fucking tactics tonight were woeful, not just woeful but I mean FUCKING WOEFUL.

We were comprehensively beaten tonight because our prick off a manager just sat there like a fucking idiot for 94 minutes and watched us overrun in midfield. Chelsea could have scored 6 goals tonight such was their dominance. We used 1 substitute just 1 FUCKING SUBSTITUTE, and even then the senile old twat took the wrong player off, he decided to stick with needs 40 chances to convert 1 goal Dzeko.

Sorry for my rant, but I totally leave the blame this Defeat on Pellegrini,i cant remember such an other incompetent team selection as bad as this ever. Absolutely gutted that were out thought in the dug out. How the fuck did he stick with that midfield for 94 minutes, why the fuck did he persevere with Demichellis who legs were gone and was lucky not to be red carded, why the fuck didn't we bring on Milner or Rodwell and try and change things in the middle off the pitch. He just sat there like a fucking clown.

Pellegrini was Maureens bitch, embarrassing, he gifted them those 3 points, he cost us tonight big time.

Carn't have that. Of the fit players we had, he picked the best avail. The tactics were right in that we should have been 2 up before they scored. I get it were all upset because we lost that's fine, but the chances to win were there early doors and we didn't capitalise. Fcuk all to do with tactics, just poor finishing

[nottsblue]

Having had time to reflect on last nights game its not nearly as bad as its being made out.

We've lost for the first time in 20. Admittedly against rivals which is never ideal, but its still a phenomenal run. One defeat doesn't make us a bad team. In a peverse way, long term, it might do us a favour, or more specifically, Pellers a favour.

This will, or should have done, brought home the notion that sometimes in games, formations and personnel need to be changed, especially versus top opponents. I know he swapped things round v Watford and it worked but last night was very one dimensional. We were overrun in midfield and the forwards supply line was limited yet our tactics and shape weren't amended. If at first you dont succeed, try, try again.

Also, though we have a few first teamers out it is clear we need new blood in the summer. Rightly or wrongly Pellers clearly doesnt fancy/trust Rodders Milner Richards Lescott. Maybe we'll have a few lads promoted from EDS, which imo would be no bad thing. Maybe we'll get a couple of big, ready made signings. Time will tell.

All the bullshit talk of quadruples will hopefully quieten. Personally, I'd be happy with one trophy. Over the moon with two. Beyond that i cant even comprehend. In 38 years we've won two so to get that in one season would blow me away.

Was strangely confident before the game and even after losing I felt at the time and still do, that the result wouldn't impact our season. Though Chelsea deserved the win the result wasn't as clear cut as the media made out. If we'd taken one or two of the chances early doors it would have been a much different game and outcome. Cech was the busier of the keepers and we had more attempts and possesion. It was just one of those games. It happens. We move on. The next game is usually a good barometer of the spirit and determination of the squad. Lets start a new run, starting with Norwich. We are still in a good position and could be back on top after next round of fixtures. Keep the faith

[City64]

And last night was the first time in nearly three and a half years we havent scored a goal at the Etihad ......... we only needed to score one , i wonder how many of the tourists knew that ?

[TheBlueCatsWhiskers]

Shots CITY 25 Chelsea 18 (from http://www.bbc.co.uk) How can a team have 25 shots on goal and be "utterly dominated"?

Because we were, open your eyes!

[Original Dub]

No we weren't. It was a very even game for goal scoring opportunities. Poor finishing and our passing being well below par made it even.

Had we been on our game it wouldn't have been even. No even close.

That in itself is a positive to take away.