City 0 Chelsea 2 - full time thoughts

Yet again the final whistle draws a close to another largely frustrating afternoon.

High hopes for a second half were had given the way we had performed in the first half, but an early flourish gave way to a second goal which all but killed the game off.

Unfortunately, once again when it mattered we didn't quite have the final touch or necessary bit of quality to 'kill' teams, whereas Chelsea's second goal from Kalou was a perfect example of why they are challenging for the title and we are wilting way, on the outside looking in as despite being under pressure they can turn things around in an instant.

Positives for ourselves were the excellent performance from Joe Hart, and good work from Martin Petrov but Elano was once again ineffective and on the fringes, whilst the game as a whole could well be overshadowed by what looks to be a nasty injury to Nedum Onouha - an innocuous fall but was carried off clearly in a great deal of pain.

Results elsewhere sees us remain in ninth position and it is difficult to see us climbing higher up the table on current form, which means the InterToto option is slipping out of our grasp.

Frustrating once again then, and despite the patches of quality and attacking purpose we showed during the game, it was unfortunately another reminder that despite the overall success of the season, we are still a long, long way off where we want to be.