Hart – With brilliant protection in front of him, Joe picked up another clean sheet with a minimum of fuss. A few straightforward saves combined with better judgement in coming off his line than we sas in the Blackburn game. 7
Boyata (Boateng, 88) – Outstanding, bearing in mind he played a full match on Wednesday night, and isn’t a right-back. Mancini showed real faith in the teenager by not giving him obvious cover with a Milner type player in front. Chelsea kept working Dedryck and he kept coming up with the answers. 9
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Blue Days
25 September 2010
Chelsea /
And so we move from defeat to West Brom’s second string to the Champions. Carlo Ancelotti’s freescoring side pose our biggest test so far yet it shouldn’t be forgotten we also pose theirs.
Roberto Mancini came through the opening fixtures against Tottenham and Liverpool with four points, and will be looking for a performance at least as good as we provided against Roy Hodgson’s side. One thing’s for sure, after we did the double over them last season, Chelsea won’t be underestimating us.
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Blue Days
24 September 2010
Chelsea /
West Brom came from behind with two quick second-half goals to knock City out of the Carling Cup. Roberto Mancini made a full 11 changes from the side that won on Sunday, while Roberto Di Matteo made 10 for West Brom.
Critically, Mancini also had to allow for injured players in Boateng, Richards, Kolarov, Bridge, Lescott, Michael Johnson, Balotelli and Adebayor. As a result he was forced to field several youngsters with half the team in effect a third choice outfit. Shaun Wright-Phillips was also missing which may mean he had a knock as well.
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City begin their Carling Cup campaign at the Hawthorns with Roberto Mancini keeping one eye on a Saturday lunchtime date with Chelsea. Rotation enables a manager to keep his squad fresh and tonight should see a host of changes.
The Carling Cup appears to be the least of City’s priorities this season which may be a pity as it requires the fewest number of games to pick up some silverware. Just six fixtures have to be negotiated to end City’s quest for a trophy.
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