The west Londoners become the first side since Alex McLeish’s Birmingham city in Nov 2o10 to stop City scoring at home in the Premier League.
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GK) Petr Cech – 7
Steady, reliable, assured and error free, everything you want from your goalkeeper on a night like tonight’s, with the experienced Czech never truly over exerted, other than when he needed to react smartly to keep out well-struck efforts from both David Silva and Stevan Jovetic in the second half.
DR) Branislav Ivanovic – 8
Oustanding display on the right-hand side of Chelsea’s defence and at times midfield and attack too, as well of course as the match-winning strike just past the half-hour mark that gave City keeper Joe Hart no chance.
DC) John Terry – 8
Everything that you would have expected from a player of his experience, with the Chelsea skipper marshalling his back line superbly throughout the contest, while also winning every aerial duel and 50-50 ball there was to contest too.
DC) Gary Cahill – 7
The England international barely put a foot wrong all night, with the 28-year-old ever alert and quick to spot danger, using his pace to rescue him whenever he was caught out of position in a display that will have given Three Lions manager Roy Hodgson great confidence for the summer, while he was also unlucky to see a second-half header strike a post.
DL) Cesar Azpilicueta – 7
The consistent and rock-solid Spaniard would no doubt prefer playing in his more natural right-back berth, but you would never know that left back is not his normal position after watching his impressive display at Eastlands on Monday night.
CM) Ramires – 7
A quieter than normal evening from the normally energetic, box-to-box Brazil international, although that should not hide from the diligent protecting job that the holding midfielder afforded his of his back four in the north west, while the 26-year-old should really have doubled Chelsea’s lead in the first half, only to shoot too close to Joe Hart when through on goal.
CM) Nemanja Matic – 8
An incredibly assured performance putting out fires at the base of the west London club’s midfield by the Blues new £21m arrival from Benfica, while the all-action Serbia international was also more than a threat when breaking forward into opposition territory.
CM) David Luiz – 7
Did the spoiling job his manager Jose Mourinho asked of him pre match to perfection, with the Brazilian’s physical, no-nonsense style of play a key factor in Chelsea being able to slowly disrupt City’s fast start to the game.
AM: Eden Hazard – 9
A man-of-the-match performance from the visitors’ twinkle-toed Belgium playmaker who at times had City petrified to even make a tackle his dribbling was so mesmeric, while he was at the centre of all of Chelsea’s most dangerous moments with his inventive attacking play.
AM) Willian – 8
Another excellent showing from the hard-working, but ever skilful, Brazil wide man, who works as hard as anyone on the pitch to win back possession and close down opposition attacks, while at the same time being a constant threat going forward down the right flank.
FC) Samuel Eto’0 – 7
Maybe not his most memorable display, but the Ivory Coast international always offered his team an way out of defence as the focal point of their attack, and the 32-year-old was also unlucky not to double the Blues’ 1-0 advantage when his brilliantly struck first-half volley from an impossible angle smashed against the post.
Substitutes:
AM) Oscar – 6
The skilful Brazilian, whose name was a surprise omission from the Chelsea starting lineup, was only given seven minutes in which to make an impression after replacing Eto’0.
CM) John Obi Mikel – 6
Just thrown on in stoppage time for Willian with the sole intention of using up precious time.
FC) Demba Ba – 6
Likewise, the giant Senegalese came on in the final minute of stoppage time in place of Hazard with the three points by then already in the bag.