Man City 0-1 Chelsea
December 28, 2005

Chelsea shrugged off the unexpected absence of Frank Lampard to march mercilessly on towards back-to-back Premiership titles.

Joe Cole's 79th-minute winner proved enough to overcome a valiant effort from Manchester City and avenge the Londoners' defeat at Eastlands last term to open up an 11-point lead at the top.

If champions require good fortune and need to win when not playing well, the trophy might as well be parcelled up and sent to Stamford Bridge immediately.

Jose Mourinho's side have talent and durability in abundance but had still been unable to break City down until Sun Jihai blasted an attempted clearance at Arjen Robben on the right touchline.

Robben immediately released an unmarked Eidur Gudjohnsen, who strode into the box then drove a shot towards goal which David James appeared to have covered until it flicked off Richard Dunne.

James was still able to keep it out but only at the expense of palming the ball into Cole's path, allowing the England man to sweep home.

It was tough luck on City but typical of Chelsea this season, proving just why the reach the halfway stage of the campaign with a second successive championship almost in the bag.

Jose Mourinho must have expected Lampard to be available for the encounter having named the free-scoring midfielder in his starting line-up.

But shortly before kick-off, Lampard informed his manager he was too ill to play, forcing a quick reshuffle which saw Gudjohnsen drafted into the visitors' starting line-up.

With former City favourite Shaun Wright-Phillips not even making the bench, the hosts sensed their chance and tore into their much-vaunted opponents from the kick-off.

They did so with some degree of confidence too, having blotted Chelsea out twice last term, including in the corresponding fixture when a Nicolas Anelka penalty condemned the Stamford Bridge outfit to their only league defeat.

With Darius Vassell providing pace down the left, skipper Sylvain Distin standing firm at the back and midfield enforcer Joey Barton seemingly everywhere, City were worthy of being level at half-time.

They might even have been on top had Barton been able to turn Trevor Sinclair's cut-back home after 14 minutes.

Instead, Petr Cech saved with his legs, proving his error against Fulham on Monday to be nothing more than an untypical aberration.

With Lampard absent, Cole took it upon himself to try and open City up and he managed to give Ben Thatcher the slip on a couple of occasions without being able to make it count.

Chelsea's most potent threat was Didier Drogba, although the Ivory Coast forward did not endear himself to the home support midway through the opening period when he collapsed in apparent agony under James' penalty box challenge.

It was debatable whether the contact warranted a spot-kick. It was beyond doubt the collision could not have caused Drogba to writhe around in agony as he did.

Drogba appeared unperturbed, either by injury, a lecture from referee Uriah Rennie or the boos which rang round Eastlands every time he touched the ball.

He might have silenced the home fans just before the break too when he reacted quickly to reach Dunne's mis-directed clearing header but was fractionally off target as he tried to turn the ball home.

Whether it was coincidence or not, Lampard was missing from one of Chelsea's least effective displays, although his fellow stalwart John Terry came close to putting the visitors in front seconds from the re-start, volleying Damien Duff's cross narrowly wide.

With the hour mark approaching and no sign of an end to the deadlock, Mourinho took off Duff and Drogba and brought Robben and Hernan Crespo on in their place.

It is the kind of strength no-one else can match and one of the major reasons why prior to this contest Chelsea had dropped points just twice in 18 outings this term.

One member of the Wright-Phillips clan did make the pitch in Shaun's half-brother Bradley, who replaced an injured Antoine Sibierski 20 minutes from time.

The substitution provided City with more pace in attack, although by that stage, the goalmouth action was restricted to the other end.

James had already denied Robben with an excellent low save before Sun gifted the Dutchman possession by the touchline, setting an unhappy chain of events in motion for City which allowed Chelsea to steamroller on and break the deadlock.

• Jose hails 'untouchable Cole'

>Jose Mourinho branded Joe Cole 'untouchable' after the England midfielder blasted Chelsea 11 points clear in their Barclays Premiership title march.

The champions were struggling to overcome the pre-match loss of Frank Lampard and a stubborn Manchester City outfit at Eastlands until Cole seized on an Eidur Gudjohnsen shot which had taken two fortunate deflections in between being saved by David James.

Cole quickly dispatched his seventh goal of the campaign - and his 14th since Boxing Day last year - to give Chelsea a 1-0 triumph to move the Blues further towards retaining their title.

'At this moment, Joe Cole is untouchable,' said Mourinho.

'He was fantastic tonight in every aspect of the game.

'Physically he was amazing. He is strong, has control under pressure. He is great one-on-one and has an appetite for goals.

'He is unbelievable - a fantastic player.'

Cole's contribution proved decisive after Lampard had pulled out 10 minutes before the game after failing to recover from an illness which had been bothering him all day.

With Birmingham holding Manchester United at St Andrews, Chelsea were able to extend their lead, although Liverpool could close the gap to nine if they win two matches in hand.

Even so, Chelsea would still need to lose three times in the second half of the campaign to give Rafael Benitez's men a sniff of a chance, unlikely given they have only dropped points in two of their 19 matches so far.

'I always say the best team wins the championship because it is over 38 matches,' said Mourinho.

'We do not have to be worried. For us it is about controlling the distance, getting three points or picking up one.

'If we had drawn tonight and Manchester United had won I do not think it would make that much difference. The situation would have been the same.

'For us it is about winning. For the others it is about waiting for our mistakes.'

Mourinho admitted he would have been happy to leave Eastlands with a point, a better result than they got in the corresponding fixture last season when City inflicted Chelsea's only league defeat of the campaign.

But for all their industry, typified by Joey Barton's lung-busting efforts, the hosts lacked a cutting edge.

'I was always confident the goal would come,' said Mourinho.

'These are the type of games where you would accept a point. Under those circumstances, it is important for the players not to panic and keep control of their emotions.

'They must not make mistakes and they must not concede a goal because with the quality in our side we can always score. If we don't, we take away a point, if we do we go away with a positive result which is what we deserved tonight.'

Mourinho dismissed the absence of former City favourite Shaun Wright-Phillips as nothing more than a tactical decision based on his need for only one winger - in this case Robben - to be on the bench.

But the absence of a player who for three years was the Blues' best player before his £21million departure for Stamford Bridge last summer, only emphasised the gulf between the respective sides.

'It didn't bother me,' said Stuart Pearce when asked about the introduction of Robben and Hernan Crespo for Damien Duff and Didier Drogba just before the hour mark. 'I brought on Lee Croft.

'You don't anticipate anything in this game but we did hope our endeavour would have brought us something.

'It wasn't to be but my players could not have given me any more.'

Source : ESPN

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