The first thing to say is that the eight teenagers whom Manuel Pellegrini called upon here did not let themselves or Manchester City down. Six of them started, with five of them full debutants, and two more came off the bench near the end of what became a lopsided FA Cup tie.
But this was nonetheless a chastening experience for City, with matters heading downhill quickly after a positive first half as Eden Hazard and Cesc Fàbregas turned the screw for a Chelsea team that has the scent of a silver-lined finish to the season.
For Pellegrini, the post-match talking points were inevitable and unavoidable. How could he have expected anything more from such an experimental lineup? Moreover, how much did he care, not only about the result but whathis selection said about his attitude towards the FA Cup?
Yet it was his senior players who did not cover themselves in glory, particularly Martin Demichelis, who lost Diego Costa for the first goal, chopped down Hazard to collect a yellow card and barged into Chelsea substitute Bertrand Traore to concede a penalty.
Willy Caballero saved it from Oscar, another substitute, which was the high point of a flappy performance from him, while Fernando was guilty of a loose clearance that ushered in Gary Cahill for Chelsea’s third.
Pellegrini was unapologetic afterwards, making his points strongly once more that seven injuries, combined with a fixture pile-up, had given him no other selection options. City travel to Ukraine today for Wednesday’s Champions League last-16 first leg with Dinamo Kyiv before they face Liverpool in the Capital One Cup final on Sunday. Reaching a first Champions League quarter-final and winning the Wembley showpiece are the priorities.
Pellegrini had wanted this tie to be played on Saturday, but as soon as it was clear that it would be Sunday – close to the Kyiv tie – he had started to make his representations. This was a game he did not want, but he wanted an injury to his stretched squad even less, so damage limitation was the order of the afternoon.
It was hugely risky to blood so many young players at once and, after a bright start, it was no surprise they felt the pace of the game. To compound their woes, they met a Chelsea team whose focus ran no further than these 90 minutes.
Pellegrini had promised to play a young team, but few people expected it to be this young and there needed to be some quickfire genning up on a clutch of unfamiliar names. Pellegrini also omitted Sergio Agüero, Yaya Touré, David Silva and Nicolas Otamendi from his travelling party.
A couple of comments from the City manager had stood out in the buildup.
He talked of his “hope that in the two big games we have coming up this week, we are going to return to our normal performances”, after the Premier League home losses to Leicester City and Tottenham Hotspur. He was referring to the Kyiv and Liverpool games, not this one.
Pellegrini also said that if the travelling City fans “choose not to pay for the ticket because it is not a real game any longer, I understand that”.
Not a real game any longer? That was some statement. For the record, City were offered 6,000 tickets and accepted 3,000 of them.
– Guardian Service
