Opinion: There was no space for Chelsea to "Park the Bus"

By Amos Joseph

With results from the weekend matches in the EPL, I thought it's one of those weekends Big teams don't like to see, as the likes of Liverpool and Manchester united couldn't secure  much needed points save for Arsenal. Moving on to the Monday night football at the Etihad  Stadium, I write....

Branislav Ivanovic's cracker strike helped Chelsea defeat Manchester city 1-0 in a pulsating encounter at the Etihad stadium keeping the Blues on track fr the title chase. 

But You did project that Chelsea FC would "park the bus" as usual when they play Manchester City, didn't you? Obviously yes.  The reason for this premonition is not far fetched, Manchester City are the highest scoring side this season with their strikers and midfielder firing from all cylinders.  More so, this City side are actually on an impressive home scoring run of over 60 games and the last time they failed to score at home was against Birmingham city in November 2010 in a match that ended 0-0. And to add this, they have not lost a game at home this season having played a total of 23 before the Chelsea match. 

Now would you have blamed Jose Mourinho if he had decided to mount a "road block" or "park the bus" as you may put it. The answer is No! Some may also argue that why should a professional side decide to play a negative football against another equal side? Simply put, circumstances or state of the team actually determines what pattern would be adopted. Mourinho over ther years  has proven to be that manager who would rather save his face by ensuring he picks valuable point from a particular game. Ask Barcelona and Bayern Munich just to mention a few.

This "Park the Bus" phrase was not employed on the night as we saw a Chelsea team on an onslaught ready to cause a damage every time they attacked. Obviously there was no reason to park the bus, let's say why should you park the bus when you can actually gallivant around. 

I am not a football coach but I can tell the difference between tactics and formation.  When a team plays offensive even the blind would see from the number chances created during the course of the game. On the other side, parking the bus is a typical defensive tactics meant to frustrate the opposing team. Some lovers of good or positive football, will say it makes the match get boring, but who cares as long as it helps the team get a desired result. 

In terms of possession, City were on the bright side but talking chances, Chelsea had the better. In fact you could say that city were luck to have gone with just a goal but not also taking away a couple flashes that the city side brought. Since city manager, Manuel Pellegrini decided to employ his usual tactics that has earned him points and saw his side score more goals, with Negredo and Dzeko upfront in absence of Injured Aguero, the strike force could not do much with a prepared Blues defence. Credits to Eden Hazard who helped move the attack for Chelsea causing problems for the CIty defence form all points. 

The battle in the middle was thick enough between Yaya-Demichellis pair against David Luiz and Matic. While the likes of Samuel Etoo, Willian and Ramires ran to and fro to keep the city wings at bay. 

Despite the victory on the night, Jose Mourinho has decided to stay calm just as he has been before the game. Shying away from the term "favourites" you'll say. 

Well, this is just one of those big games as we are yet to see more very soon. 

But I must reiterate Chelsea were indeed impressive on the night.