POLL: I'm sorry, Chelsea, but you have yourselves to blame
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BITING BACK ... City ace Robinho
Saturday, 5 December 2009
Channel 27: "Live"Manchester City - Chelsea - 1:30 amROBINHO has come up with a three-point plan to scupper Chelsea's charge at the top of the table at Eastlands tonight. Manchester City's fit-again £32.5million samba star says: "We must drown their midfield, open the scoring - and stop Didier Drogba."
The Brazilian admits that Carlo Ancelotti's Blues are the top side in England at the moment - but they are not unstoppable.
Robinho, 25, said: "Chelsea are the best team in the Premier League at the moment because Manchester United are not playing with the same rhythm as they did at the end of last season.
"It is not an easy game for us but given the spirit in our squad this week, I believe the Blues will suffer in Manchester. "It's the basics for us. We must score goals - without them we don't win matches.
"Drogba is one of the best strikers in the world and Nicolas Anelka is having some big moments too. We are working on a system to stop them - but our defence must avoid any costly errors.
"From my point of view, John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho are the best central defenders in Europe but they do have their little weak points and I want to exploit them."
Robinho, 25, has been a frustrated spectator while City's own title hopes have stuttered on a run of seven successive Premier League draws, leaving them a massive 14 points behind today's visitors.
The Brazil ace - whose very first City strike came against Chelsea last season - is only just back after his enforced lay-off following a stress fracture in an ankle he suffered while playing for Brazil in early September.
He is confident Mark Hughes' side can rip up the form book at Eastlands today and still challenge for a top-four finish at the end of the season to book a ticket to next season's Champions League.
And Robinho, who made his comeback as a sub in last weekend's 1-1 draw with Hull, swept aside speculation linking him with a January move to European champions Barcelona by insisting he has unfinished business at Eastlands.
He said: "City will play in Europe but the Champions League is the main challenge and it's still possible. "I still dream that City will see the very best of me, the way I played for Real Madrid. I don't want to fail in this adventure.
"I came to England to triumph and to demonstrate my quality. I still think this is possible so I do not want to speak about my future. "I have a deal with City and now my mission is to work and help the club. "I have spoken with manager Mark Hughes and he has no problems with me - he's happy that I have returned after injury."
City fans will be pleased to hear Robinho's assurance that he is committed to the Eastlands cause - especially after World Cup legend Franz Beckenbaeur's remarks that the Brazilian 'can play in a circus but he's not a team player'.
They certainly need him firing on all cylinders again. Robinho has 14 goals in 33 starts for City since his shock arrival from Spanish giants Real 16 months ago.
He has yet to get off the mark this season although Hughes' men are buzzing after Wednesday's 3-0 Carling Cup triumph over Arsenal earned the club's first appearance in a cup semi-final since 1981.
That victory took some of the pressure off the Eastlands boss, although Hughes is under no illusions about the size of the task facing his side tonight.
The Welshman said: "If Chelsea continue to play in the same vein absolutely they will win the title. "They've been the standout team up to this point - they are close to being the best team in Europe.
"That's the size of our challenge. We're not only going up against the best teams in the Premier League, but some of them are the best in Europe."
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Adebayor just scored with his backside... lol
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For Chelsea... og
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Ade scored...
Seldom see chelsea getting hammered like this...
City 8 corners - chelsea 1
Chelsea 8 fouls, city 2
City is pressuring chelsea like crazy -
woah
this game damn close. a very good entertaining game
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Referees kena bribed by Man City alr.......
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Yeah, nobody mention that Chelsea was given wrongly offside 8 times which would result in goals.
& Ade goal is the exact replica of France's Henry handball goal !!!
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Aiyah, dun bother lah. can see all the ManUre clones coming in.
Richard handball is so obvious
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Good job to the referes. Now city 2-1 up.
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lmao saved
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well chelsea threw it away
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Referee slightly more biased against Chelsea.
But mainly Chelsea has played extremely poor today. Definitely worst performance this season. Take out Carvalho and Terry??
And why put out Deco??? He is rubbish. J Cole is so much better. This Chelsea team has no pace and not hardworking enough
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Carvalho was taken out because both JT and him was on yellow. Ancelotti doesn't want a red for them.
Then in the end Terry was injuried and hence he was taken out for Malouda.
I do not believe Deco was to be there for full 90, I think its because of JT's injury that changed Joe Cole's sub for him.
Ultimately, it boils down to the referee. Look at Chelsea players, all 4 defenders are yellowed.... small fouls, the referee blows. PK not given. Controversial goal as well. -
this match is def made for Chelsea to lose. The Refs made sure of it.
The Blues could hv easily gone 6-0 up at halftime, but ref blew the whistle everytime they gonna score.
The match ended at 96min sharp. You wonder wat happen to "fergie time" since so many City players R always lying on pitch play-acting more than 3mins each!
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my god...man city @ 4.00!!! in sg poolz
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you all got bet anot? lol.
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well done city.
city played very well.
ancelotti rested 7 players against blackburn for this match. the plan backfired.
tevez was amazing throughout.
anelka and essien were the 2 worst player on the field.
deco played well.
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Another very entertaining epl match... Though I don't support either side, but this was another very good match to watch... Both side was going like 100kph type...
Chelsea started really well taking the match to City from the start... Perhaps surprising them a little i guess but once they went into the lead, they kind of lose focus and City overtook them with their consistent attacking and pressurising... I have never seen Chelsea put under so much pressure untill all their defenders get book, even their sub defenders as well... City really took the game to them...
And full Credit to Shay Given, really he has taken over the best keeper tag from Cech I feel. The Chelsea first goal he did really well, I was just amazed how he even kept the ball out in the first place but was unlucky at the end so not his fault there, just plain unlucky... Cech on the other hand, wasn't great... He made several mistakes and one very costly.
Overall, I think Chelsea lost their composure when City went ahead... Terry got exposed on the ground again by Tevez... Lucky this time he didn't used his rugby tackle like he did last season on Jo... Terry's weakness seems to be not being able to handle fast attackers on the ground... Bellamy would have given him more problems last night had he been fit... But his replacement Robinho did rather well on the left anyway...
Personally I don't think Terry was injured at all... I guess he was taken out cos he had a yellow card already and the match was still in the "hot stages". Tackles were flying in and City was still putting even more pressure on them... Personally, I thought Terry would have come in handy in the final minutes and Lotti might have done better by putting in J Cole and taking out Deco instead. Cos the midfield was becoming non existent. Ballack, Lampard and Deco couldn't control the midfield...
At the end, Chelsea have only themselves to blame for this defeat... Cos Drogba had 2 great chances in the second half but sent his shots wide both times... Referee even gave them a penalty but Lampard's penalty was weak and at a savable height or Chelsea could have won...
Overall, City played really well last night... This we have to hand it to them... They really gave physical Chelsea a physical game in return... They didn't get bullied and not many sides can do this...
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robinho is really over-rated.
he has not live up to expectations at city.
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man city played like they were the premier league champions.
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future manchester derbies would be the stuff of fantasies and legends.
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I thought the free-kick part was a little weird... Cos the Chelsea players just refused to move back to where the referee told them to... The wall wasn't even at a proper distant and the referee let it be... Then, just before the free-kick was taken, we could see the Chelsea wall jumping a few steps forward those like in chinese vampire movies kind of jumps... lol making the distant even shorter... I guess it worked against them instead cos it only block Cech's view as they kept jumping... It probably distract his eyes on when the ball was being struck...
Anyway, it was an entertaining match worth staying up until 3:30 am... Chelsea are no longer a boring team since Lotti took over... now they play better football.
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chelsea have their fair chance of scoring goals but failed to convert.
lampard had the best chance among all, but saved by shay given.
if that's e way city played liverpool, i think the kop will lose at least 3 or 4 - 0
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oO Since MC beat Arsenal, they seem to be gaining form.
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The thing about City is, they have a lot of quality, perhaps much more than Arsenal, Pool and United, but they lack the experience and the motivating factor... So they can easily raise to the occasion when they play against the big sides... And they will be very hard to beat. But like an illness they caught from Pool, when it comes to the smaller sides... The players take it easy and can't play like they really can... This is the area that separate champions from wannabes... We saw how Nigel De Jong played last night? Oh man... He was like a super defensive midfielder... "The Machine" as Chelsea is known to the pundits on channel 27, was put out of operation last night...
Only Shay Given is the most consistent City player since the start of the season... The rest, still need to learn.