Pre Match news
After recording a sixth straight home league victory last weekend, Sven-Goran Eriksson is forced to make one change to his line-up today. In comes Georgios Samaras for his first Barclays Premier League start of the season in place of Emile Mpenza who is ill.
For Chelsea there’s no Shaun Wright-Phillips on the pitch or on the bench and despite being without John Terry and Ashley Cole, the main spine of the home side remains an impressive looking outfit.
The Match
City started in their third shirt with white shorts and blue socks and it was a bright opening for Sven’s men against their hosts.
Four minutes in Stephen Ireland was inches away from putting City 1-0 up. It all came from a free-kick floated in by Elano which bounced and forced Cech to tip the ball behind for a corner as it threatened to creep in.
Chelsea pressed on but couldn’t create a clear cut chance and on 12 minutes Georgios Samaras’ 25-yard shot had Cech scrambling across goal.
But just four minutes later Chelsea claimed the first goal of the game. Mikel played a ball into Lampard, he turned it on to Michael Essien and as Richards hesistated, Essien didn’t and tucked the ball in across Joe Hart.
Sven’s men stuck to their task and weathered a couple of Chelsea threats straight after the goal before hitting back themselves. And they almost did in some fashion on 21 minutes thanks to a Martin Petrov piledriver. Cech was at his very best to turn the
Essien was booked on 26 minutes for a clumsy foul on Elano he was quickly followed by both Micah Richards and Frank Lampard after a bit of ‘handbags.’
If that was bad it got worse for City on the half hour the home team doubled their lead. Lampard’s ball with the outside of his right boot from the left channel gave Richards a major headache and Didier Drogba promptly fired through the legs of Hart.
Despite the hammer blow, the Blues could and maybe should have pulled a goal back in the 37th minute. Following a good move down the left, Garrido found Johnson who gave Ireland the chance to score from the edge of the box, he couldn’t and City’s lack of luck continued.
Nothing else to report other than a booking for Johnson a minute before the break, maybe the Chelsea midfield have just outclassed the young Blues thus far, so 2-0 at half time and Sven has a lot to talk about.
HALF TIME: Chelsea 2-0 City
No substitutions for either side at the break as the Blues need to strike early.
On 52 minutes Petrov was denied after another free-kick from distance caused Cech problems, this time the ball flicked off the top off the net and behind.
The game was effectively over on 56 minutes as Drogba slammed home his second of the afternoon from close range after Hart had produced a great stop to deny Lampard.
Chelsea were breaking at will and after another fine save by Hart, Drogba missed an easy chance to notch his hat-trick, but the home side didn’t have to wait long before adding to the score sheet.
Belleti’s clearance was met by a Drogba’s flick-on as Joe Cole raced through before toe-poking the ball home on the hour mark to make it 4-0 and leave City completely and utterly shell-shocked.
Vassell, Ball and Bianchi all came on, but it mattered not, City were fighting the tide. On cue Kalou made it officially a rout with 15 minutes left as he broke inside Garrido and duly finished past Hart for five.
It really was men against boys and as if to prove a point, Andriy Shevchenko latched on to an Essien throughball in the last minute and slotted under Hart, rounding off a total nightmare for City down in London.
FULL TIME: Chelsea 6-0 City
mcfc.co.uk’s Man of the Match: Michael Johnson - he kept going in the face of the strong Chelsea midfield.
