Sir Alex Ferguson versus Roberto Mancini is a contest of experience versus youth. City's Italian coach has been here before, in Italy, but has not sampled the unique pressure of duking it out with English football’s greatest club manager in spring’s brighter light.
In the other dugout here, Roberto Di Matteo managed to leave out Didier Drogba and upset Fernando Torres at the same time by taking him off midway through the second half. This is the win-double for Chelseamanagers hoping to lose their jobs. Mancini, too, has grappled with the sort of political issues Ferguson is immune from by virtue of his huge power base – but with this vital 2-1 victory City’s leader can say he is making the right calls.
Starting with Mario Balotelli is the default gamble of Mancini’s time in the sky-blue half of Manchester. Red cards or extreme detachment can follow. This time Balotelli brought ineffectiveness and Mancini took him off at half-time.
“He was not good,” the manager said. But the point was that he put it right quickly, and can now face the last nine games with a clear hierarchy among his forwards. An all-Argentine strike force of Sergio Agüero and Carlos Tévez looks
the best bet to keep the heat on United.
City came into this potentially momentous clash fearful that their title challenge could be ruined by Chelsea sacking another manager. When Roman Abramovich sneezes, the rest of the Premier League can catch a cold.
The bounce produced by the oligarch’s latest loss of patience had led to four straight Chelsea wins and rendered it harder for City to recover from their defeat at Swansea. They wanted the old clique-ridden and sulky Chelsea. Instead they faced Fernando Torres after his escape from the goalscoring wilderness in a London side suddenly chirpy and cocksure.
Nowhere will you find a serious expert willing to dispute the theory that this season’s Premier League lacks its usual razzle-dazzle. We are talking individual chemistry here, not determination or desire.
Arsenal fans reminisce about the Thierry Henry/Dennis Bergkamp days. Manchester United supporters remember a recent forward line of Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Tévez.
Of the biggest firms, only City and Spurs have advanced along the entertainment path. But Roberto Mancini’s side can no longer worry about bouquets. The sideswipe in Swansea and United’s relentless tenacity (and eye for goal) have turned this title race into a two-team, one-city contest in which Ferguson’s men appeared to have taken charge of doling out the pressure until City saw off Chelsea.
With this victory they completed a Premier League record 20th consecutive home win. Only Liverpool (1972), Newcastle (1907) and Preston (1892) can match those numbers. City have scored in every league fixture stretching back to November, 2010: 27 games in all. Four away defeats have been the only blemishes on an otherwise impressive domestic campaign that has mattered far more than the failed expeditions in Europe.
Yet here they were, four points behind United at the start of play, with a harder run-in, and Tévez drawing boos and cheers from the home crowd when his name was announced.
Patrick Vieira, the City ambassador, described United’s recall of Paul Scholes from retirement as a sign of “weakness.” Scholes’ stats contradict that; and Old Trafford could fire the same accusation at City over the return of Tévez.
In both cases metropolitan rivals were simply maximising their resources to avoid having to leave the city for the whole summer to escape the other’s bragging. Milanese intensity now suffuses this struggle between red and sky blue. Beyond the obvious needs to stay fit, and pull together, the final nine fixtures are a searching test of decision making by both camps.
Mancini keeps saying Tévez will need “time” but what he has already is cunning and charisma. He changes games. He and Agüero are made for each other. Agüero torments the centre-back with darting runs. Tévez works off the main striker and acts as provider. Both strike fear.
City have been at their most irresistible sweeping teams away with a free front four backed up by an impenetrable back six. In that system Vincent Kompany (missing here) has been the defensive Titan and Yaya Toure the locomotion through midfield. How unjust, then, that it was the younger Toure’s heel that provided the deflection for Gary Cahill’s weak 59th-minute shot, and sent it looping past Joe Hart.
That shock prompted Tévez to obey the order to get ready, six months after it was first issued. Nigel de Jong, the house tackler, gave way: an example of a player who gives his all for the shirt being replaced by one who has filled his own boots without offering anything in return since the Bayern Munich bust-up.
But the change was tactical, not symbolic. City had already added a midfielder (Gareth Barry for Balotelli) and now Tévez was joining in to provide the assist for Samir Nari’s winning goal.
“Come on Tévez, you owe us,” grumbled one City fan.
'El Apache’ bustled on, looking even stockier than usual, to join Agüero in a front-two that would surely be Mancini’s best bet from now on.
Mancini is committed to the great Balotelli project but surely he must suspend it for these last nine games. Moments after Torres had left the pitch chuntering about being replaced by Drogba, David Silva departed shaking his head, too, as Edin Dzeko came on. Silva’s form has also lacked the consistent majesty of the team’s first 20
games: another challenge for Mancini.
When the forgotten star of the City constellation, Nasri, danced though to chip the ball over Cech, relief burst across the home crowd, who found their voices again – and their faith. Intelligence and heart worked together to keep the title race alive.
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