Having won their first 11 home games of the Premier League season and scored a truck-load of goals, Manchester City were rightly confident that they could fend off a Chelsea side with next to no bite in their frontline.
They’d be disappointed however, as the Blues ran out 1-0 winners thanks to a Branislav Ivanovic strike, and although Yaya Toure is often the lynchpin of the City side, he struggled to run the midfield without his usual partner Fernandinho.
Sitting next to Martin Demichelis in the middle, the Ivorian was restricted a little as he didn’t look convinced that the Argentine could hold the fort when he pushed up the pitch.
Toure was outplayed, out-fought and most importantly out-thought last night, and Matic had a field day in the middle of the pitch.
The big African was solid in his distribution as usual, but off the ball he struggled a little. He won just one of his four headers, won half of his tackles and his three shots during the game went wide of the goal.
He was easily picked off the ball at times and looked as though he was reluctant to take players on, and it was a real shame to see him like that. I didn’t realise Fernandinho would be such a loss to Pellegrini’s side, but he was to Toure and for that reason he was to City.