Having Pizarro, Barry and Milner in the same match and the absence of Silva meant the only player who could take the responsibility of a play maker was Nasri. The question that I would therefore ask is, could Nasri handle the hostile pressure at The Emirates? If not, then what are the alternatives?
The defense for instance, and especially without Silva it meant the game could be won from the flanks. Why then start the more defensive Zabaleta and leave the more pacy and attacking Micah Richards? Was Mancini playing for a draw or did he actually go to the Emirates to win? i really doubt it.
As the game progressed, other than foul his opponents, lose ball possession carelessly and throw arms in the air due to frustrations, Balloteli did match and everyone knew he would pick a second yellow card, save for Mancini. Instead of substituting him and bringing in Tevez, he subbed Aguero instead, only for Balloteli to pick his second booking as many had predicted. Where was Adam Johnson? Where was Dzeko?
Conclusion:
Mancity are too one dimensional without Silva. Too predictable and they are lucky to finishing above Chelsea. They should actually thank Avb for wrecking Chelsea's season coz otherwise they would be playing Europa next season! City have now only one win in five matches. Please give the title to United!
Di Matteo and Chelsea
I keep on wondering where Chelsea would be if Avb had not been sacked. At the rate of 1 loss and one draw in every three matches, mathematically Chelsea would be slightly above Everton, out of the Champions League and also out of the FA Cup. For a club with resources like Chelsea, that would be the worst performance in nearly 20years.
Di Matteo has been able to turn things around. This is being acknowledged by all players including those who stood by Avb like Ramires, who recently praised Di Matteo's approach. In my opinion, any successful managers will ride of two principles. That of being tactically sound and secondly, being able to motivate their players. Well, he may not be as tactical genius as Mourinho, Van Gaal or Klaus Topmoller but he sure knows how to motivate his players.
I think Di Matto deserves to be given a long term contract and "time". The same "time" that everyone wanted Avb to be given, with difference being, Di Matteo may not win a trophy, he may not even finish top four but atleast unlike Avb there is light at the end of the tunnel and one wonders, just what if, what if Di Matteo was the manager from the beginning. We can all agree, things would have been alot different for Chelsea and the entire EPL table as it stands at the moment.
And as one blogger rightly put it, Roberto Di Matteo has given Chelsea fans the chance to dream. They can dream on, perhaps one of the dreams may come true!!
