Manchester City recovered from their extremely disappointing home defeat to Chelsea 12 days ago, with a superb 2-0 victory over the same opponents on the same ground, in the FA Cup on Saturday evening. Goals from Stevan Jovetić and Samir Nasri on his return from injury helped The Citizens progress to the quarter-finals on what was a bad day for José Mourinho.

Many Chelsea fans arrived in Manchester with high hopes after Branislav Ivanović’s winner for the London side earlier this month, with that game being Manchester City’s first loss since November, and their first home loss of the season. However, Manuel Pellegrini was able to nullify much of the Chelsea threat, limiting them to just 2 shots in Saturday’s game, with none on target.

Meanwhile, with what was a weakened City side missing the likes of Fernandinho and Sergio Agüero, the hosts put in a superb performance in a pleasing result after a rough couple of weeks. New signing Jovetić, who has been extremely unlucky with injuries this season, started alongside Edin Džeko, and performed superbly for the time he was on the pitch, notching the opening goal.

The home side opened the scoring just 16 minutes into the contest; after Jovetić had missed a golden chance moments earlier when Čech spilled a Touré shot, the Montenegrin wasn’t going to miss a second time, and slotted in via the post after David Silva and Džeko had combined well. At that point, it was a very well-deserved lead for The Citizens, having prevented Chelsea from getting going for the first 15 minutes of the game. After that, the visitors fought their way back into it, and despite having much of the possession, were unable to find a goal to level; however, they did come close after a scramble in the City penalty area ended with Costel Pantilimon clinging onto the ball.

Chelsea’s newest signing, Mohamed Salah, was brought on for Samuel Eto’o at half-time, in an effort by Mourinho to change things. This left the away side without a dedicated striker on the pitch until Fernando Torres made an appearance with half an hour remaining. At the same time, Frenchman Samir Nasri replaced Jovetić, with the midfielder returning to the side after a month on the sidelines. It wasn’t long before the former Arsenal man had made his mark, after he linked up superbly with David Silva, and then slotted into the empty net after the Spaniard fooled Čech. That put the contest almost beyond the reach of the London club, and despite their best efforts in the remaining minutes, they were unable to cut the deficit, leaving the game to finish.

After some of José Mourinho’s comments in recent weeks, which as always have riled up most opposition fans, City fans will be glad to see their team recover from the previous defeat with progression to the quarter-finals; just one more hurdle to cross before another trip to Wembley is on the cards for Manuel Pellegrini, with his side already booked to face Sunderland in the Capital One Cup next month. However, the Chilean will for now be very happy with his side’s performance in the FA Cup, and the win will breathe new optimism into the Etihad stands.

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About the author
Ben Warner
Manchester City writer for VAVEL and others; press man for Maine Road FC.