EPL, Manchester City 1-0 Chelsea: How Man City Beat The Blues

On a weekend where Arsenal shockingly lost 3-2 at home to West Brom, Liverpool were held at Anfield by Darren Bent and Sunderland, Tottenham were put to the sword by West Ham, and Manchester United dropped points at Bolton, Chelsea will be kicking themselves that they couldn't manage a win at Manchester City.

The Eastlands club on the other hand couldn't be more delighted, stealing a march on all their Premier League title rivals to shift up to fourth in the table.

Slowly but surely it seems City's colossal investments are coming to fruition, as manager Roberto Mancini works his catenaccio magic to grind out results.

And that's exactly what Man City did against Chelsea, grind out a result. A boring 1-0 result to be precise.

In a game where the score was never going to be a repeat of the epic 4-2 City win at Stamford Bridge last season, only a moment of magic (courtesy of Carlos Tevez) would separate the two sides, as a tactical deadlock ensued between Mancini and his Chelsea counterpart Carlo Ancelotti.

Boring, boring Chelsea

For one game only, it was like a throw back to the Jose Mourinho days, as Carlo Ancelotti matched his opponents' tactics by following a similar grind-out-a-result style of play.

With Frank Lampard missing, the flair was sapped out of the Chelsea midfield somewhat, as John Obi Mikel and £17million Brazilian new boy Ramires formed a doble pivote in front of the back four.

Michael Essien was then employed as the box-to-box midfielder just ahead of those two, ensuring that the Blues had at least seven players back covering should their opponents hit the counter-attack button.

Florent Malouda was deployed on the left wing, with Nicolas Anelka positioned between the defence and midfield lines, giving support to Didier Drogba up top, who selected Vincent Kompany as his prime centre-back target.

It all meant two things; Chelsea had only around four players in attack (Essien joining from midfield) barring set pieces, meaning if Drogba, Anelka or Malouda couldn't work the ball out for a corner, dangerous free-kick or shot on goal when going forward, then at least when City attack the defence wouldn't be exposed.

Also, Chelsea's set-up meant their right wing was left open with just Branislav Ivanovic there as the right-back; a deliberate ploy by Ancelotti in the hope Manchester City would target that wing and all the space available, thus commiting many men forward to join the attack and therefore leaving their tight defence exposed.

However, Ancelotti's boring yet intelligent plan agonisingly crumbled on the hour mark, as a lack of defensive discipline allowed City to break, take men forward against a depleted away team defence and grab that winning goal.

A Chelsea goal was never going to arrive, considering Man City had too many players back defending for Drogba, Anelka, and Malouda to break down, and also taking into account the fact that Michael Essien just didn't have the fitness to carry on supporting the front three.

And so that combined with the moment of magic from Carlos Tevez, there was only going to be one outcome inevitable, a 1-0 Manchester City win.

With City still so defensively disciplined following their goal, there was no way they could commit enough forward to score again, and there was no way Chelsea could possibly find a way through.

Had Frank Lampard not still been injured, a different Chelsea side with more attacking zest could've easily meant a different result, especially considering they hit the crossbar in the first half.

But ultimately it was not be, as Ancelotti's deleterious respect for his opponents with defensive tactics slowly and agonisingly backfired.

City's Millions Finally Make a Big Difference

When two like-minded coaches of the same nationality and same football philosophy who are good friends come up against each other, it's inevitable their tactics will be similar.

And when they're both Italian and have mastered the art of catenaccio, it's inevitable the games will end in 0-0 a draw barring a moment of magic.

Mancini operated effectively the same system as Ancelotti, except he opted for a lone striker in Carlos Tevez and two wingers in James Milner and David Silva, with Yaya Toure playing the role of box-to-box ahead of the two holding midfielders (i.e. the "doble pivote") in Gareth Barry and Nigel De Jong.

And simply put, it was the better attacking talent of Manchester City on the day that won them the game.

Yaya Toure played the box-to-box role much better than Essien did for Chelsea, with his vast experience in that position for FC Barcelona in Spain's La Liga crucial to opening up that equally as tight Chelsea defence.

The quick thinking of a swift counter-attack which saw Carlos Tevez take the ball halfway up field before getting the measure of Ashley Cole and slotting the ball home past a helpless Petr Cech was the only difference between the two sides.

Also, the bursting of presence of David Silva and Toure in that successful attacking move granted Tevez enough time and space to take the ball right near Chelsea's penalty area and ultimately grab that winning goal.

With City's costly defensive players doing their job at the back, it was their even more expensive ones up top who all chipped in together and granted Manchester City a much needed win.

To quote the cliché saying, "you get what you pay for." It's fair to say that against Chelsea, mega rich vultures Manchester City certainly got what their oil rich Abu Dhabi backers paid for.