Chelsea 2 – 1 Man City

Sunday 27^th October from Stamford Bridge:

Chelsea 2 – 1 Man City

In my not so humble footballing opinion I believe both Chelsea and Man City will fight out this year’s league between them. This felt like one of those crucial, early league clashes that you look back on in May as a ‘6-point-swing’. Both Arsenal and Liverpool had won 24 hours earlier to establish themselves at the table summit. This meant 3 points were necessary for both sides and a repeat of last year’s bore draw was unlikely. On route from café to pub we walked past Blue Moon Dry Cleaners. The pre-match signs were not good.  Although the bleak outlook lessened when Twitter revealed the starting XI. The squad mirrored my exact thoughts on what our strongest team is at present with Torres as lone striker. I agree with BBC Sport’s Phil McNulty when he says the ‘Torres is back’ battle cry comes and goes from Stanford Bridge like a London bus, however, after his midweek Schalke performance you couldn’t bench him.

Weirdly we were the better team in the first half rather than the second and the opening 45 was all about one man – El Nino. Half hour gone and Ramires plays Torres through one-on-one for the Spaniard to do…err, well, a ‘Torres’ and spurn a glorious opportunity. The next moment was pivotal. Instead of groaning and berating the home fans applauded the run and cheered his name.  This sincere and faithful act of encouragement was repaid shortly after when the rejuvenated Torres went past Clichy like he wasn’t there and fed a perfect ball into the late-running Schurrle. It was a run his childhood hero Frank Lampard would’ve been proud of. You could see how much his first Premiership goal at home meant to the German from his celebration. We went in 1-0 up.

We knew City would come out firing in the second half and they were the undoubtedly the better team throughout with Yaya Toure pulling all the strings from midfield. I would love to see him in a Chelsea shirt. It only took 4 second-half minutes before Aguero levelled the game from a seeming impossible angle. Both Cahill and Cech looked like they should have done better. 1-1, game on!

It must’ve been a great game for the neutrals to watch. City did most of the pressing second half with the in-form trio of Toure, Silva and Aguero causing havoc on the break. Yet the blue defence stayed strong. Then, just as fans were convincing themselves a draw was a good result, Torres put himself and Joe Hart in the back pages of Monday’s papers. Willian’s hoof forward proved awkward to deal with and Nastacic headed over Hart who found himself in no man’s land. Chelsea fans know all too well that when Torres in through with open goal in sight you should not to start cheering until that net ripples. Even then you glance at the linesman to make sure the flag isn’t up. It wasn’t. 2-1. A huge 3 points and a sore throat going into Tuesday's game at the Emirates.