Manchester // The quadruple is still on for Manchester City. The treble is off for Jose Mourinho.
The Chelsea manager went hat-trick hunting, looking for a third triumph over his favourite enemy, Manuel Pellegrini, this season. And, for once, he lost. Instead of a repeat for Mourinho, there was revenge for Pellegrini.
His City side had been eviscerated by Chelsea a dozen days earlier; he had been subjected to special attention by the “Special One”.
The Portuguese can be Pellegrini’s tormentor on the pitch and in the press-conference room alike, but a manager who believes in allowing his players to do the talking for him saw them at their most eloquent and effective. Theirs was a dominant display, an example of playing on the front foot and forcing the opposition to worry about them.
Pellegrini’s positive approach worked. Goals from Stevan Jovetic and substitute Samir Nasri brought a 2-0 win as Chelsea became the fifth member of the Premier League’s top nine to exit the FA Cup.
Mourinho’s options for glory are narrowing. City’s horizons remain as broad as ever.
There are times when many have wondered why City spent £24 million (Dh147.6m) to bring Jovetic in from Fiorentina last summer. It seems an exorbitant amount for a fourth-choice forward, let alone one who is rarely fit.
The answer was belatedly supplied on Saturday: for cool, clinical finishing; for a stand-in who can breach England’s most frugal defence; for a place in the FA Cup quarter-finals.
Along the way, he ended the season’s strangest goal drought. City had been stuck on 115 goals since January – a problem many teams would welcome – but the 116th ranked among the most important.
It should have arrived a minute earlier. Uncharacteristically, Petr Cech spilt Yaya Toure’s shot, crisply struck as it was, and Jovetic reacted first. The Montenegrin beat the flailing goalkeeper, but his shot had too much elevation, clipping the bar on the way over.
Redemption came quickly. His radar, slightly awry earlier, functioned perfectly as he brought a suitable conclusion to a classy passing move.
David Silva found Edin Dzeko who slid the ball into Jovetic’s path. He, in turn, angled his shot across goal and in off the far post.
It was a finish that was reminiscent of Sergio Aguero.
This, however, was City’s B-team in attack combining slickly. With Aguero injured and Alvaro Negredo benched, Pellegrini had put his faith in the understudies. It was justified.
Indeed, while he, with a Uefa Champions League meeting with Barcelona in mind, rested a handful of Tuesday’s probable starters, Mourinho had named his strongest available side.
It should render City’s triumph all the sweeter. Many a manager rotates in cup competitions. Mourinho, eyeing opportunities to add to his sizeable medal collection, rarely does.
He deployed the same blueprint he used when Chelsea won 1-0 at the Etihad Stadium 12 days earlier. The Pellegrini plan was similar, too, but this time he had the goal to reward his side for a fast start. This time, too, they blunted the Chelsea attack.
The visitors mustered a solitary shot in the first half, prompting Mourinho to withdraw his sole striker, Samuel Eto’o.
City carried rather more menace. Cech had to parry a stinging shot from Dzeko. The Bosnian should have doubled the lead when he somehow failed to apply the finishing touch to James Milner’s inviting cross.
Then Pellegrini introduced Nasri. Out for five weeks with a knee injury, he scored six minutes into his comeback.
He settled in where he had left off, exchanging passes with Silva to slice through the Chelsea defence, and was left with a tap-in.
It condemned Chelsea to their first defeat of 2014. With Vincent Kompany and Toure in imperious form, the message from City was clear: bring on Barcelona.
sports@thenational.ae
