Boss pleased with Weavers return

City were ultimately undone by a set-piece header by John Terry, a first deflected goal of the season for Frank Lampard and a Didier Drogba header against City’s 10-men.

Pearce though took comfort from the positive efforts of his side, saying: “Micah Richards was only playing his sixteenth or seventeenth game, Stevie Ireland came on and looked more than comfortable with the ball at his feet and made some key passes.

“Trevor Sinclair’s got through one-on-one with the goalkeeper as did Dicky. Bernardo was about six inches away from putting one in the goal as well, so we created chances.

“Sometimes as a manager you’ve got to come away and say, ‘Hey, if the team would have lost their head a little bit we could have ended up being beat by five, six or seven,’ but we kept at it and kept slogging away.

“We’ve just got to make sure we take all the good things from the Chelsea game and go on to Portsmouth on Wednesday.”

Another positive to focus on was the return of Nicky Weaver to the City goal. It was the big keeper’s first Premiership start since April 2001 having worked hard to overcome a series of injuries.

“I’ve been in that gym two and three years ago when he had his knee problem and he was working and working and working. I was very pleased and proud of him,” Pearce said.

And of the Nicky’s start to the season the Manager added: “I don’t think he could have done a great deal with any of the goals.

“He was composed with his kicking and his handling was good. I was delighted for him and I think he can look at his performance and say it was a step forward.”