No cheap goals or tantrums, just skill under pressure - this is the closest the English game has been to emulating brilliant Bayern

Now that was a proper, grown-up football match.
Manchester City and Chelsea delivered a serious contest, the like of which I had begun to despair of seeing again in the increasingly populist, harum-scarum, crash-bang-wallop Premier League.
Here was extreme skill produced under intense physical pressure, at searing pace, yet under highly intelligent control.

Extreme skill under pressure: Eden Hazard (left) used his pace and touch to drive at the heart of City's defence

 

   

Rarely has the old adage ‘earn the right to play’ been so vividly expressed.
No cheap goals. No hiding place. No distracting tantrums to speak of.
This was the intense concentration and relentless effort which is required to compare with the best football being played in the world today.
This is the closest the English game has yet come to responding to the modern German blitzkrieg which powered Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund to last season’s Champions League final.
The giants of the Bundesliga now demand that all outfield players be fully engaged for the full 90 minutes, be they on or off the ball.
No breathers. No resting. No ball-watching. No matter how talented you may be. No mentally switching off, either.
John Terry revealed that Jose Mourinho had spent two days briefing his Chelsea players in dense detail on how to negate City’s strengths and exploit weaknesses which few other teams had even detected so far this season.
Yet one moment’s loss of focus by a single player could have undermined Monday night’s entire operation.
City were not gifted that opportuity. Yet while Chelsea and their manager rightly reaped the plaudits for the momentous victory which has set the stage for a thrillingly close title race, the blue side of Manchester made a stunning contribution, also.
Manuel Pellegrini engaged Mourinho in the cut and thrust of a tactical battle on the grand scale.
Whether City would have won had Sergio Aguero and Fernandinho been fit is not the central issue.  Mourinho out-manoeuvred Pellegrini on this occasion.

Bolt from the Blue: Branislav Ivanovic's left-foot strike unexpectedly won the match for Chelsea

No quarter given: It was a proper contest and there were no cheap goals or hiding place

 

Mourinho: Chelsea are little horses in the title race

He was able to confound City’s majority of possession because not one of his troops was ever less than totally absorbed in the action, for a single moment.
Mourinho’s midfield personified the ethic.
Nemanja Matic, the prodigal son returning to justify the banishment of Mata, and David Luiz, a figure looming ever larger for Brazil as their World Cup approaches, surrendered not an inch of that vital territory and hardly wasted a pass.
Eden Hazard not only used his lightning acceleration and tight control to run the ball like a dagger at the heart of City’s defence, but hurried back time and again to reinforce Chelsea’s defence.

Winner: Jose Mourinho outmanoeuvred Manuel Pellegrini (right) on Monday in masterminding Chelsea's victory

 

Pellegrini: Chelsea defeat won't change our objectives

Ramires, although not his usual productive self in possession, was equally committed to the cause.
Although Matic was pronounced man of the match, Hazard was the revelation. If he carries on developing like this, the young Belgian will come to be measured against the likes of Andres Iniesta and Xavi.
He will be helped by working in the environment within which Mourinho is looking to combine the best of the Spanish and German virtues... the adroit interplay of Barcelona and Real Madrid harnessed to the power of Bayern and Borussua.
The game never stops evolving. Nor does Mourinho.

Marvellous Munich: Arjen Robben scores the goal that won Bayern the European Cup they so deserved

Chelsea are challenging the goal-scoring flair of City and the near-ethereal artistry of Arsenal with athletic, technical excellence. It is a pity that Manchester United are not able at the moment to bring their old Fergie dynamism to the equation.
If the Premier League is to justify its claim to be the best in the world, enough of the rest need to raise their game.
But for the moment at least, after Monday night’s football, professionalism is not a dirty word in England.

Unfair loan system is corrupting the game

If football really wants to impose financial fair play, one simple step can apply the remedy to the obscenely wealthy buying all the success:
Put an end to the greatest iniquity in the loan system.
The game is being corrupted by the mass farming out of players to rival clubs.
Chelsea are by no means alone in this but for Romelu Lukaku to be allowed to score goals for Everton against everyone except the club from which he is being borrowed deeply compromises the Premier League.
It is no less improper for top division clubs in one country to borrow players from their counterparts on the Continent, against whom they might play in European competition. Even stuffy old Arsenal were among those trying to work that dubious trick in the past week.

Loan star: Romelu Lukaku has been farmed out by Chelsea to Everton and his parent club benefit

If the loan system was outlawed it would prevent a handful of giant clubs from plundering all the best young players in the world… thereby preventing other, slightly lesser clubs from signing and developing those talents while building a more broadly competitive league.
It is as outrageous as it is startling to realise that Chelsea have an entire squad of 27 footballers  littered elsewhere across England and Europe – even after unloading 13 players in this winter transfer window.
Manchester United have just loaned out 10 more, making it 15 in all. Arsenal and Liverpool each have 14 young men playing for other clubs.
Quite simply, not even the richest would be able or willing to keep paying the multi-thousand pounds a week wages for 50, 60, 70 players.  
They would have to make sensible judgements as to which ones they really want, not just keep signing them up to stop others getting them.

All he touches turns to goals: Lukaku being able to score against all other clubs bar Chelsea compromises the integrity of the Premier League