Chelsea 1 - 0 Man City (Essien, 18')

City lose another game on the road, Michael Essien shinning home to give Chelsea the win.

City were very lacklustre today in their general play and our attacking threat was non existent. The goal we conceded summed up the way we approached the game. Michael Essien was left all alone on the edge of the box, Lampard then found him from a Chelsea free kick and he just simply helped it on to send the ball looping some what fortunately off his shin over Shay Given.

There were a couple of obvious reasons why we didn't get anything from today's game, we 110% missed De Jong and Kompany after clearly losing the midfield battle and the other thing, Chelsea were simply more competent when they were on the ball than we were. It still doesn't excuse our sloppy passing and lack of fight, we didn't look like we wanted to win the game and we looked scared of Chelsea.

I am not sure what the problem is when we go away, but there is hardly ever a hint of the attacking game on show that we play so well when at home. A lot of our players seem to go hiding and do not play to their strengths, as well as that our creative players are getting no service what so ever. So how we are ever going to win away from home playing like that I do not know.

I wasn't impressed with what Hughes had to say again after today's game either, he seem to just be looking for excuses. He analysed why we were poor quite well, but then he went on to say that we looked a bit leggy and that Chelsea had more time to prepare than we did, poor excuses and poor reasons for another away performance in which most of the players didn't look interested.

There was some good points I want take from today's game:
. Our defence was good again, although they were a little more unorthodox at times today than they have been, overall they were good and did well not to concede any more goals.

. Elano looked like himself more than ever and was continuously looking for the ball so he could try and make things happen, why he was taken off is beyond me.

. Bojinov came through another 10+ minutes of play since coming back from a long term injury, I think he should start in our next league game as he is clearly our best striking option.

. We got battered at Stamford Bridge last season, so getting beat 1 - 0 and only because we fell asleep has to be progression.

Next up for City is Aalborg in the Uefa Cup, where hopefully we will all be able to come away from an away game feeling extremely happy, for a change.