Chelsea 1 Manchester City 0: IT WAS a luxury to amble into closer contention for the Premier League title. Chelsea will not yet be utterly convinced they can track down the leaders Manchester United, who are four points clear with a game in hand, but at least they will feel rested after this simple victory.
Mark Hughes, the visitors’ manager, referred to missing players and a weariness in the wake of a Uefa Cup win over Aalborg on Thursday.
The Danes, however, had hardly tested City and if the club is to achieve a status that corresponds with its wealth they will have to develop a different mentality.
Chelsea’s lead was narrow in theory, but of oceanic breadth to City. While Michael Essien’s goal delivered the win, it was his sheer vigour that counted for more. The Ghanaian had appetite and influence in his first league start since sustaining cruciate ligament damage while with his country in September.
City were despondent long before he tired. With a single away victory in the league, the subdued tone of Hughes’ team is not without cause. They are six points clear of the relegation zone. That margin makes it highly unlikely they will be demoted, but it is galling even to have to contemplate such a possibility.
It is appropriate to sympathise for a manager under pressure following the arrival of new owners, but Hughes would have been feeling ill-at-ease no matter who held the shares.
Though even-tempered afterwards, it must have infuriated the Welshman that City had a single attempt on target, from the substitute Valeri Bojinov, that hardly troubled Petr Cech.
Essien’s effort was never likely to be overhauled. It was taken with his shin, but the true untidiness lay in the visitors’ defending after 18 minutes. Frank Lampard had no trouble finding Essien with a free-kick struck from the middle of the pitch. The midfielder connected first-time and the ball flew past the left hand of Shay Given.
That contact contained its element of luck, but there was nothing haphazard about Essien’s influence overall. If he has been absent for much of the campaign, that at least makes him a footballer whose dynamism will also make a deep impression on wearying rivals. City had certainly lost sight of him when he headed off-target from a Lampard delivery in the 39th minute.
Earlier Lampard had been at the heart of an exquisite move that Ballack started and then sought to finish. Stepping on to the backheel by Didier Drogba the German fired wide. There was an abundance of opportunities and Chelsea will be reproached for spurning them.
City did at least persist and Richard Dunne, for instance, kicked clear an effort by the substitute Florent Malouda with three minutes remaining.
Damage limitation cannot satisfy a club of such means. The crowd jeered the eventual substitution of the ineffectual Robinho. Had Chelsea succeeded in signing him before City stepped in he would have been idolised here.
On this occasion, the Brazilian was far advanced on the left but that was largely a ploy to check the trademark surges of the Chelsea full back Jose Bosingwa. Of Robinho’s dozen goals for City, just two have come in away games and he has not scored at all since December 28th.
The statistics, of course, must reflect the help he is given and there was little impact at Stamford Bridge from, for example, Stephen Ireland, who had been enjoying an excellent campaign. Chelsea could afford to be unflustered even when they might, for instance, have railed against the referee Mike Riley when Nicolas Anelka was denied a penalty after appearing to be fouled by Nedum Onuoha in the 32nd minute.
If Guus Hiddink broods at all it will be over the pernicious hamstring injury that curtailed Deco’s afternoon. The manager suggested afterwards the Portuguese international might even have come to the end of his involvement for this season.
Chelsea’s means are not extensive in certain areas and it suits them that the main priority must lie in the Champions League, a tournament in which just five further games have to be negotiated by the eventual winners.
The caretaker Hiddink continues to be unbeaten with the club. This latest success could have been resounding even though Chelsea did not have to push themselves to the limits. It did not, for instance, feel like a turning point had been reached when the substitute Juliano Belletti hit the post with a long-range effort after 62 minutes. Any uncertainty lay in the eventual margin of City’s loss.
Hughes impresses with the calmness shown in a trying campaign, yet he does need to galvanise his squad. Chelsea, for their part, might enjoy living in what is relative seclusion following the hullabaloo of the Mourinho era. The league may well be out of reach but the side is now going about its work with quiet effectiveness.
Guardian Service
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