Chelsea took another step forwards in their collective rehabilitation of the seasons fortunes against Manchester City in the Premier League today, but it was the boys from Brazil, via Benfica, who were the stars of the show.

Chelsea lined up in their now almost standard 4-4-2 formation with Torres and Kalou leading the line, supported by a flat four of Ramires, Essien, Lampard and Malouda, whilst Ivanovic, Terry, Luiz and Cole made the back four in front of Cech.

City lost talisman Carlos Tevez earlier in the day to a late fitness test, so started with Dzeko up front, and Italian bad boy Mario Balotelli on the bench.

Chelsea started slowly, allowing City to take the initiative over the first five to ten minutes, with David Silva and Yaya Toure both trying their luck early on, however as the half started to settle it was Chelsea who became more comfortable in their play, with City seemingly happy to sit back and look to hit us on the break.

Kalou was looking especially dangerous and showed both quick feet and a sharp mind, having a go himself and laying on the ball for others in what was one of his better performances for some time. Malouda continued his erratic form, for reasons only known to himself there were a couple of occasions he should have played in Torres, but decided to go it alone, ultimately ruining the chance.

For all the good play though, and some of it was lovely to watch, especially with Lampard returning to the form of old, spreading play to both wings with first time balls, and Essien, Ramires, Cole and Ivanovic all getting into advanced positions, it wasn’t until the 41st minute of the first half that we got a shot on goal, which came after Malouda set up Kalou.

Half time came and went with no changes, and the game continued exactly how the first half had ended, with City happy to sit back in numbers and let Chelsea try to pick their way through. Malouda, Essien and Cole all tried with long range efforts and the attempts at playing Torres in were snuffed out. Increasingly the match looked to be heading for a stalemate.

With the clock approaching 70 minutes Torres made way for Drogba and Malouda was replaced by Anelka, with Ancelotti clearly going for goals. It was however the impressive Luiz who made the difference, twice in the space of a few moments.

Some Ronaldo like fancy footwork on the left wing saw Luiz fouled, Didier lined up the free kick and put a ball into the box that Luiz got onto the end of, and planted a header past Joe Hart to make it 1-0, crowning what had been a fantastic performance from the man who is quickly becoming firmly established as a fans favourite.

A few moments later Luiz almost made it two, nearly getting onto the end of a ball into the box, however it was left to another Brazilian, and one who supporters haven’t taken to nearly as quickly as Luiz, to seal the points.

Essien laid the ball into the path of Ramires, who danced his way into the box, getting past both Lescott and Kolarov, before drilling across Hart and into the far corner, a just reward from yet another impressive performance from the Brazilian, to make it 2-0 and put the result beyond doubt.

The result took us to third in the league, leapfrogging Manchester City and leaving us nine points behind United with a game in hand. Whilst talk of the title is still somewhat muted, talk of Luiz is not, with his the name on every supporters lips post match.

Ancelotti had his say too, stating; “‘David Luiz and Ramires had a fantastic performance and fantastic goals and Ramires showed he is improving very well. Defensively David Luiz worked with a fantastic tempo and one-against-one was good, his performance was really good.”

Discussing the match overall, Carlo noted; “We wanted to win but it was not easy to find a solution in the final third in the first-half, the second-half was better because Manchester City were softer; they played Thursday night and were a little bit tired and we had more opportunity at the end of the game.”

“We needed to be patient. It was a difficult game because we didn’t want to concede on the counter-attack like we did in the last game against them.

“Tactically it was a good as well. We played for 90 minutes with good fighting spirit, so I am happy for this, and our moment is good, we showed this on the pitch.”

Chelsea (4-4-2): Cech, Ivanovic, David Luiz, Terry (c), Cole, Ramires, Essien, Lampard, Malouda (Anelka 69), Kalou (Zhirkov 76), Torres (Drogba 69).

Goals: David Luiz, Ramires

Well that didn’t go entirely to plan, but then as we know from the Mourinho years, when a team sits back and defends for all their life is worth, it’s always difficult to break down.

There were times we attacked and City had no less than six players back, often seven with the three mid-fielders sat in front of their back four.

Anti-football? Maybe, but with over £250,000,000 spent on a team, you’d think they’d want to attack a little more, especially at home.

That said, City had their game plan and executed it almost to perfection with De Jong and Toure playing particularly well in the middle, both overpowering and snuffing out the threat of Essien and Ramires.

Malouda wasn’t able to get in behind the defence, likewise Anelka on the other wing, and Drogba didn’t have one of his better games, looking disinterested at best, only to be replaced by Sturridge later on, who seems to be lacking in confidence.

The referee didn’t help matters, continuing what seems to be a policy with our opponents lately in that, every infringement we make no matter how small is penalised, whilst our opponents are allowed to kick lumps out of us.

With a very physical mid-field set up to destroy, and without Lampard to make us tick, or even someone like Benayoun able to unlock a defence, it was always going to be a tough ask against a team who in truth, only had two real opportunities to score, and took one of them.

The shots off/on target statistics told the story, with Chelsea in double figures on the former, but less than City on the latter. It’s not that we didn’t have the chances, it’s that we didn’t take them, with Ivanovic, Alex and Essien all winning headers they could and should have scored from.

This was, many said, our first real test, decrying our earlier results against teams that ‘the experts’ obviously didn’t rate. These ‘weaker’ teams have gone on to show their no pushovers, with West Brom beating Arsenal, West Ham holding Spurs, and United also held by Bolton. There are no easy games in this league.

Ancelotti spoke after the match stating; “We wanted to play better, obviously because we didn’t play how we wanted, we saw the power of Man City in midfield; we lost a lot of possession and were not able to play the football we wanted.”

The Italian added; “We gave the ball to them and gave them the opportunity to score on the counter-attack. We maintain the top of the table but we lost this time. That was not a good performance as a team and so for this reason every player did not have a performance which was their best. As a team we didn’t play well.”

He concluded; “It is difficult to judge this team after one defeat. We lost one game but our moment is very good, we are doing very well. It was not a good day but this team has a very good mentality.”

Because of these results elsewhere we’re still top of the league by three points, and now have the monkey of a 100% record off our shoulders, expect a reaction against Marseilles, and more importantly, against Arsenal at Stamford Bridge next weekend.

Chelsea (4-3-3): Cech; Ivanovic, Alex, Terry (c), Cole; Essien, Mikel (Zhirkov 68), Ramires (McEachran 80); Anelka, Drogba (Sturridge 74), Malouda.

Saturday at 12:45 will see our boys head north to the home of Manchester City, in what many are describing as our first real test of this season. That may be true, but it’s also a chance to settle a score from the last one too.

City, as if I need to tell you, took six points off us last year and despite this and well over £100 million invested in the squad, still managed to miss out on a Champions League place, disproving the maxim that you can buy the league.

That said, they are now rightly seen as one of the ‘big teams’ in the Premiership, having replaced Liverpool as the team expecting Champions League qualification as a minimum.

We of course have also benefited from such investment, with Roman’s millions not only buying our club with Champions League qualification already secured, but also a raft of quality players too, yet it was Mourinho who shaped it into a winning formula.

Since then much has changed, a slew of managers have come and gone, some succeeding and others failing spectacularly, finally our club and evolved to something befitting Roman’s intentions.

The team has moved on too, we now have our extra special one in Carlo Ancelotti, who’s evolved and improved upon the house that Jose built, and he’s transformed the way our team play. We have a youth system that’s producing, a financial model that’s almost financially viable, we evoke minimal controversy, and we’ve dropped the ‘boring’ tag.

City would do well to follow our model, however they as their own supporters will admit, still have some way to go. We can’t criticise their spending and nor can supporters of any other club that’s been successful. United, Arsenal and Liverpool in the past have all invested large sums for sustained success, or in the latter’s case, mediocrity.

City though, have thrown it all together in double quick time, surpassing even our own spending sprees to attain parity with the top teams, and this is where they could fall short. They have no spine or any recognised leader on the pitch, many of their players are yet to adapt to the Premiership, or gel with one another, and Chelsea’s relative stability and the squad familiarity should see us through tomorrow.

Mancini himself see’s the challenge facing his team, not just against Chelsea but in the season overall, stating; “Chelsea will probably win the Barclays Premier League easy because they are a strong team and they have played together for many years. They have a fantastic manager but they have been working towards this in the past. Chelsea have won the Premier League three times and played in the Champions League for many years.”

He added; “We have bought strong players, young players. Some of our players have played in the Champions League for many years, like David Silva and Yaya Toure. Mario Balotelli won the competition with Inter Milan last season. Serome Boateng and Kolarov play for their national teams.” However he recognised City’s current injury crisis could play a part saying; “When all these players are together we can change everything. When we recover all the players, we can do better.”

Ancelotti himself seems confident enough, with injuries keeping Lampard, Kalou, Benayoun and Bosingwa out of the starting line up, selected his team early for the match, naming Petr Cech, Branislav Ivanovic, Alex, John Terry, Ashley Cole, Michael Essien, John Mikel Obi, Ramires, Nicolas Anelka, Didier Drogba and Florent Malouda as the players who will start the match.

When asked why he’d done so, the amiable Italian responded; “I prefer to have a team ready to play, I’m happy in that I don’t have difficulties. Last season was fantastic and we maintained the same squad, so this season it’s easier to work with these players. If you always change nine or 10 players it’s more difficult.”

Asked about our upcoming opponents he said; “Manchester City is a strong team, players with a lot of skills, but it is a game, and we have to do the same, do our best and show our football for 90 minutes. Every game is a test, and this is an important test, it is also a test for Man City tomorrow. It is a match against one of the most important teams in the Premier League.”

Seeing the similarities and differences between the club, Ancelotti stated; “We did the same when Roman started to be the owner, now we don’t need to spend his money because we have a good squad and young players who are improving. There is no reason to spend money now.”

Despite us supporters wanting to put one over on City as revenge for last season, Carlo feels differently; “That is the past, we have more confidence than last year, we are in a good moment and we can do better than we did last year at Manchester City.”

We hope so Carlo, we really hope so.

Chelsea crashed to a 4-2 defeat at home to Manchester City, after Carlos Tevez, Craig Bellamy and Frank Lampard all scored twice. There were two penalties, two red cards and the infamous Wayne Bridge handshake snub, in a match that only heated up in the second half.

Florent Malouda continued at left back in the absence of Ashley Cole and Yuri Zhirkov, whilst Joe Cole was recalled, in place of Salomon Kalou. Hilario was the natural replacement for Cech in goal.

Whilst some City players showed obvious displeasure at shaking John Terry’s hand pre match, Wayne Bridge was defiant in looking Terry in the eye and moving on. Booed by parts of the crowd, he was later applauded by other Chelsea supporters upon his substitution.

Chelsea took the lead just before half time, Lampard finishing accurately from a Joe Cole through ball. However, just moments before the break, City equalised through Carlos Tevez. Mikel was the main culprit, heading backwards and leaving Carvalho and Terry stranded, Tevez twisting past them before scuffing a shot past Hilario.

City led just five minutes into the second stanza, Bellamy leaving Mikel for dead and firing past Hilario from a tight angle. Sturridge and Belletti were introduced for the disappointing Joe Cole and Mikel, but Belletti was soon sent off for conceding a penalty, converted by Tevez.

Michael Ballack was sent off for a second yellow card, leaving further gaps for City to expose. Wright-Phillips took advantage, bursting into space before squaring for Bellamy to tap in his second. Barry clumsily gave away a penalty of his own, Lampard converting with ease, but it was nowhere near enough and far too late to halt City charging into fourth spot.

It is a clash of two high profile Italian managers at Stamford Bridge this weekend, as Carlo Ancelotti’s Chelsea host Roberto Mancini’s Manchester City.

City were knocked out of the FA Cup by Stoke City in their last match, whilst Chelsea were defeated by Internazionale in the Champions League.

However, this match will draw plenty of attention as John Terry and Wayne Bridge meet for the first time since the scandal involving Terry and Bridge’s ex-girlfriend.

Chelsea will be missing Ashley Cole and Yuri Zhirkov again, though Paulo Ferreira could well play left back as he is eligible in the league.

Petr Cech will also be out of action for three to four weeks with the calf tear he sustained against Inter, so the reliable and occasionally brilliant Hilario will deputise.

Roque Santa Cruz will likely start for City in the absence of their main target man Emmanuel Adebayor. Former Blues Shaun Wright-Phillips and Bridge will feature, the latter very much in the spotlight.

New signing Adam Johnson has been impressive too and will be a threat down the left. Patrick Vieira is suspended for this match.

Guus Hiddink was in charge for the corresponding fixture last season, a 1-0 win thanks to Michael Essien’s goal.

The reverse fixture this season saw a 2-1 to City at Eastlands, with Adebayor scoring at both ends before Carlos Tevez scored the winner. Shay Given denied Frank Lampard from the spot, a very rare occurrence.

Ladbrokes has Chelsea as favourites at 4/9, with the draw at 16/5. Manchester City are at surprisingly long odds of 13/2. William Hill concurs, posting the same odds.