SOCCER/Manchester City 0 Chelsea 1:Manchester City's season is beginning to resemble a plunge through football's lift shaft.
Chelsea are merciless opponents and a night of significance at either end of the table concluded with Manchester United's lead at the top of the Premiership table reduced to six points and, simultaneously, fresh doubts about whether Stuart Pearce's position as City manager has been terminally poisoned.
In fairness to Pearce, he was not subjected to anything like the sustained abuse that has been evident in other recent defeats. There was even the semblance of an argument that his side matched Jose Mourinho's for long periods. Ultimately, though, the only statistics that matter are of a fifth successive defeat, with no goal at home since New Year's Day.
The common theory is Pearce will be relieved of his duties if his team have a bad result at Middlesbrough on Saturday and, even if he survives that ordeal, it is probable he will be directed towards the guillotine at the end of the season.
City's directors are twitchy about their league position, just one place above the relegation zone, although it would be unjust to claim Pearce has altogether lost his powers of motivation. There are legitimate questions about whether his players are good enough, but it is not a question of a lack of effort. In turn, the supporters who had subjected them to brutally voluble dissent in their FA Cup quarter-final defeat at Blackburn on Sunday responded with a more positive noise.
There was something eerily predictable, however, about the manner in which Chelsea exposed the imbalance of talent. For the opening exchanges the champions had been unable to find any pattern, frequently undone by misplaced passes and lacking any sense of fluidity as they sought to play on the counter-attack.
It was puzzling that a team of Chelsea's capabilities had not done more to test City's brittle confidence earlier in the game but an air of familiarity returned when Salomon Kalou picked up the ball on the left-hand side of the penalty after 27 minutes and tried to evade Micah Richards.
Kalou's speed seemed to take Richards by surprise and his challenge was carelessly mistimed, with the Chelsea attacker quick to go down. It sums up City's season that when Frank Lampard swept in the resultant penalty for his 20th goal of the season the Chelsea captain had equalled the amount Pearce's team had managed in the league all season.
It was to the home side's credit they responded with verve and vigour for the remainder of the half. Their lack of penetration in attack was highlighted by the frequency with which shots sailed hopelessly over Petr Cech's goal. Less endearing was their attempts to pressure the referee, Alan Wiley, into levelling up the number of penalties, first when Joey Barton threw himself to the floor as he competed with Claude Makelele and then when Richard Dunne went down after the merest of collisions with Cech.
Pearce had expelled Bernardo Corradi, the non-scoring Italian goalscorer who is fast becoming one of the scapegoats for their slide down the table. More puzzling was the omission of goalkeeper Nicky Weaver, who was purportedly being "rested" and not even on the bench.
His replacement, Andreas Isaksson, generally had a far more comfortable evening than he may have anticipated and it was not until the 57th minute Chelsea showed another glimpse of why they still have aspirations of catching Manchester United. This time Arjen Robben picked out Lampard only for his delicate chip over Isaksson to be cleared by Richards.
City were running out of ideas and Georgios Samaras was booed on to the pitch when he arrived as a 73rd-minute substitute. In contrast, the home supporters emphatically welcomed Shaun Wright-Phillips when he replaced Robben five minutes later. Within a minute, Wright-Phillips had lashed a 30-yard shot against the crossbar. Soon after City fans began to form a queue for the exit gates. The question is: will they ever see Pearce inside this stadium again?
MAN CITY:Isaksson, Richards, Dunne, Distin, Ball, Jihai (Miller 63), Ireland, Barton, Hamann (Dabo 80), Mpenza, Vassell (Samaras 72). Subs Not Used:Hart, Dickov. Booked:Hamann, Dunne, Richards.
CHELSEA:Cech, Geremi, Carvalho, Terry, Ashley Cole, Robben (Wright-Phillips 77), Ballack, Lampard, Makelele (Diarra 90), Kalou, Drogba. Subs Not Used:Cudicini, Shevchenko, Boulahrouz. Booked:Drogba, Ballack. Goals:Lampard 28 pen.
Referee: A Wiley(Staffordshire).
