Manchester City Given Rude Awakening by Classy Chelsea

Off the field, Manchester City may be richer, but on it, Chelsea are a class apart.

Chelsea secured an impressive 3-1 win yesterday and moved to the top of the Premier League on goal difference combined with Liverpool's 2-1 win over Manchester United earlier in the day.

Inevitably, there was a lot of focus on Robinho in the buildup to the game, and, 13 minutes in, he sparked the game into life. Robinho hit a free-kick past Petr Cech via a deflection off John Obi Mikel.

City's joy was to be short lived, however.

From a corner, the ball came to Ricardo Carvalho, and the Portuguese defender emphatically slammed the ball high into the net to restore parity.

Chelsea continued to threaten, and Florent Malouda came ever so close to making it 2-1, planting a header onto the crossbar.

City did have moments of their own, Jo and Stephen Ireland registering efforts on goal.

Both sides went into the break level, but it didn't take Chelsea long to take the lead in the second half.

Frank Lampard finished off a lovely flowing move by hitting the ball across Joe Hart and into the net.

Former City player Nicolas Anelka sealed the win in the 69th minute, producing a cool finish to beat Hart.

Didier Drogba made a return to first-team action, coming on in the 70th minute for the enigmatic Florent Malouda.

The only sour note for the Blues came when John Terry was shown a straight red card for a foul on Jo, Mark Halsey deeming Terry to be the last man despite the fact that Carvalho was close by.

Chelsea head into European action buoyed by a performance that was characterised by defensive grit and some impressive passing and movement.

Chelsea: (4-1-4-1): Cech; Bosingwa, Carvalho, Terry (c); A Cole; Mikel; J Cole (Belletti 70), Deco, Lampard, Malouda (Drogba 70); Anelka (Alex 78).

Scorers: Carvalho, 16; Lampard, 53; Anelka, 70

Booked: Mikel, 44

Sent-off: Terry, 73

Man City: (4-2-3-1): Hart; Zabaleta, Richards, Dunne (c), Ball (Sturridge 84); Hamman (Fernandes 6), Kompany; Wright-Phillips, Robinho, Ireland; Jo.

Scorer: Robinho, 13