Ten-man City crash at resurgent Chelsea

Manchester City’s unbeaten Premier League run came to an end on Monday as Chelsea blew the English title race wide open with a 2-1 victory at home to their 10-man opponents.

City traveled to London seeking to re-establish a five-point lead over local rivals Manchester United, and made the perfect start when Mario Balotelli scored in just the second minute.

But Raul Meireles equalized in the pouring rain on 34, and the visitors had defender Gael Clichy sent off for second booking just before the hour mark.

Substitute Frank Lampard then condemned Roberto Mancini’s men to a first defeat in 15 league games with an 83rd-minute penalty that lifted Chelsea up to third place above London rivals Tottenham on goal difference.

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“The Chelsea players after the game were really happy to beat us. That shows we are a top team at this moment and that all the teams want to beat us, and this is important for us,” manager Mancini said.

“We worked well up to now and now we should continue. I hope that we can go another 14 games without losing.”

City went into the game having been eliminated from the European Champions League at the group stage despite beating Bayern Munich in Wednesday’s final game.

Balotelli was caught breaking a club curfew before this match, but the Italy striker showed his undoubted on-field class with the opening goal – his 11th this season.

Sergio Aguero showed great skill to turn inside Chelsea captain John Terry and thread a perfect pass for the 21-year-old, who held off Branislav Ivanovic and coolly slotted past goalkeeper Petr Cech for his eighth in the league.

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City could have had a 14th-minute penalty when Jose Bosingwa appeared to bring down David Silva, but the referee decided otherwise in a decision which manager Mancini later said was the turning point in the match.

Chelsea went through to the last 16 of the Champions League last week with an emphatic win over Valencia which relieved the pressure on manager Andre Villas-Boas.

However, he was on the defensive after that victory and accused the media of unfair treatment – being unhappy with criticism of the form that left Chelsea 10 points adrift of City going into Monday’s match.

The return to form shown against the Spaniards continued as young striker Daniel Sturridge gathered a superb long pass from Terry and raced past Clichy down the left before cutting back to Meireles, and the Portugal midfielder volleyed the equalizer.

Clichy’s night ended in the 58th minute when the France international fouled Brazil midfielder Ramires, and Chelsea made full use of their extra man.

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The 22-year-old Sturridge, who made his England debut last month, fired in a left-foot shot that struck the raised arm of City defender Joleon Lescott.

Veteran midfielder Lampard, who sat out last Tuesday’s European game and this time came on to replace Meireles in the 73rd minute, stepped up and smashed the resulting penalty past England goalkeeper Joe Hart.

“I went out and missed a penalty a few weeks ago and the next one is always hard to take,” he said.

“You’ve got to be big enough and stand up and take them, and they’re the moments. I was very relieved when it hit the back of the net.”

The defeat means City can lose the lead on Sunday when United travel to Queens Park Rangers in the early match, then Mancini’s side face another big test against in-form Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium later that day.

Chelsea joined Tottenham on 31 points, having played one more game ahead of their clash on December 22 – which follows Saturday’s trip to lowly Wigan

“Our objective was to shorten the distance to the leaders today, and we managed to do exactly that, but we don’t take extra flavor from being the first team to beat them,” Villas-Boas said.

“We needed to do our job to get our challenge back on track, and I think it’s pretty much alive now.”