No way for Jose as City hand out a tactical lesson
MANUEL PELLEGRINI took his revenge on Jose Mourinho, and it must have tasted so, so sweet.
The Manchester City manager has had to endure 12 days of people talking about how tactically superior the Portuguese coach is, as well as a barrage of mind games from the Special One.
Bu t after this, you have to wonder which one of them is the master tactician.
Maybe Mourinho should have spent more time on his game plan during the week instead of coming up with new ways of insulting other managers.
When Chelsea came to the Etihad Stadium in the League, they halted the City juggernaut by giving them a tactical lesson.
Afterwards Mourinho came up with his “little horse” description. Well, the little horse was never at the races this time.
City won it comfortably with goals from unlikely hero Stevan Jovetic, who has barely played since his £22m
The ‘little horse’ was never at the races this time
summer transfer from Fiorentina, and Samir Nasri. Chelsea, so dominant on their last visit, failed to muster a shot worth the description.
Mourinho went with the same formation and, injuries apart, the same personnel as last time but Pellegrini, who had only ever beaten Mourinho once in nine attempts, read his intentions perfectly.
It took 15 minutes before either side had a sniff at goal but when Petr Cech fumbled Yaya Toure’s shot and Jovetic clipped the bar with the spillage, Mourinho’s alarm bells should have rung.
It took less than a minute more before Gael Clichy, David Silva and Edin Dzeko swept forward and freed Jovetic to fire beyond Cech and in off the far post.
Pantilimon dropped a Branislav Ivanovic shot but claimed it at the second attempt before Cech dived to push away Dzeko’s powerful effort from long range then held a low Jovetic drive.
Vincent Kompany picked up a yellow card for upending Eden Hazard in the 39th minute but Chelsea hardly caused
a single moment of discomfort for Pellegrini in the first half.
In fact, City should really have been two up a minute before the break when Dzeko failed to get on the end of a brilliant cross from James Milner at the end of a move in which David Luiz was given a retrospective booking for fouling Jovetic.
Mourinho made what looked the oddest of changes at the break. He brought off the out-of-touch Samuel Eto’o and replaced him with winger Mohamed Salah, despite having Fernando Torres on the bench.
It meant a switch to a 4-4-2 formation with Salah and Hazard as the strikers.
Of course, Mourinho is a genius and few dare question his decisions, but City simply didn’t allow whatever his cunning plan was to work.
They continued to dominate the midfield and refused to let Chelsea within 30 yards of their goal.
So, after 15 minutes, it was time for Plan B and this time it was Torres for Ramires.
But it was Pellegrini’s substitution, made at the same time, that proved the more telling.
On came Nasri for goalscorer Jovetic and within seven minutes the Frenchman had scored City’s second.
He was the goal’s architect, playing the ball in to David Silva before running the return pass beyond Cech.
Plan C for Mourinho was to bring on Oscar, but the outcome was the same as all his other plans. Nothing happened.
Joleon Lescott had what would have been a third chalked off for offside 15 minutes from time but there was never a feeling City would need the extra breathing space.