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By IAN LADYMAN Northern Football Correspondent
No way past: Nigel de Jong and City's holding midfielders stopped Chelsea playingThe last Barclays Premier League game played by Manchester City before the start of Roberto Mancini's era was a 4-3 home win over Sunderland. Saturday's 1-0 home win over Chelsea was not as exciting. It was, however, wholly more significant.
Not only did it illustrate the strides City are making under their pragmatic manager, it also debunked the theory that Chelsea were about to stride through this season unbeaten.
Mancini's football may not always be the most alluring to watch - last season's 0-0 draw with Liverpool, played when both teams desperately needed points, was utterly depressing - but City's Italian coach provided this season's competition with a huge fillip on Saturday. Victory was not just what City needed but what the country needed, too.
How they achieved it was simple, at least in its design if not its execution. Mancini's three holding midfielders - Nigel de Jong, Gareth Barry and Yaya Toure - denied Chelsea the space they needed. When they did have the ball, City broke with pace and dexterity through Carlos Tevez and David Silva.
Afterwards, De Jong offered some insight into Mancini's game plan - for the season as well as this particular occasion. He said: 'He has come from a country where defence is No 1 and he has brought that mentality with him.'The main focus for him is to get the defence right because he knows we have enough quality to score goals - especially at home. That's what he preaches. That's always his message - don't concede. It will take time but this was an important step towards the future.
'I think it is the mindset of every player in the team that has changed. The belief is there. He spends more time on the training pitch with the defenders to get them to realise that a clean sheet is holy. This result shows that Chelsea are not robots.'
Man with the plan: Roberto ManciniMancini insisted that we may see more of his team's attacking qualities when some of his injured players return, especially full backs Jerome Boateng, who appeared as a late substitute on Saturday, and Alexander Kolarov.
'We will be more creative,' said Mancini. 'At this moment we don't have a full back that attacks. With these players we have more chances to change everything.
'For Chelsea, this was a perplexing afternoon. They arrived as favourites and left wondering how they failed to create chances. Only Branislav Ivanovic's first-half header against the bar worried Joe Hart and when Tevez scored just before the hour, Chelsea failed to respond.
Also of concern to Carlo Ancelotti will be the manner in which Ramires was bypassed so often and the way Nicolas Anelka and Didier Drogba can look like strangers when adversity strikes.
Ancelotti ultimately replaced Drogba, but felt the battle was lost in the middle, saying: 'It was strange that we lost the fight in midfield. For this reason we lost the game. We didn't have the possibility to play our football.'
source :dailymail [endtext]