Manchester City

In a largely cagey affair, a solo goal from striker Carlos Tevez was enough to seal the victory and it saw the Citizens move up to fourth place in the Premier League table, just four points behind the leaders.

Carlo Ancelotti’s side had gone into the match having scored 21 goals in their five previous matches to set the early pace this season, but they created few chances against a resolute City rearguard.

Mancini had stated before the game that he thought Chelsea were the best team in the country and that they would win the league “easily”, and despite masterminding their first defeat, the Italian tactician has not seen anything to change his mind.

“I still think they will win it easily because I think they are the best team in the Premier League,” Mancini said after the game.

“Sometimes you might get a result like today. But they are the better team.”

Mancini was aware of the attacking threat that Chelsea had shown in their previous games and made no excuses for denying the Blues the space to exploit any weaknesses in his back four.

“It is not possible for them to score five goals every game,” the City boss added.

“If Chelsea find space it is easy for them to score. But if they don’t have space it is too hard and our players defended very well.

“But we cannot think everything is OK just because we won this game.”

Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti applauded his counterpart for his tactical execution and believes City are genuine title challengers, but admitted his players had not played to their full potential at the weekend.

“They used a good tactic to play against us. To play against us they wanted to counter attack and they did some very well. We knew this but from one counter-attack they scored,” Ancelotti said.

“If you play against a good team with a strong defence and you don’t play at your best then it is normal that you don’t score a goal.

“They have fantastic players and a very good squad and they can fight for the title.”

Meanwhile, Mancini has ruled out the possibility of a January move for Everton’s Jack Rodwell and says it will be “impossible” to sign him.

The young midfielder has long been linked with a move away from Goodison Park, with Manchester United reportedly keen to sign him in the summer.

Mancini has confirmed his interest in the player but admits that a deal in the transfer window is unlikely to come to fruition.

“We put English players in the team but it isn’t easy because all the clubs that have English players won’t sell,” Mancini told the Daily Star Sunday.

“I like Jack Rodwell but will Everton sell? Impossible. If I can, I give young players a chance.

“I was just 16 when I first played in Serie A.”

City (4/5 favourites in the match betting) are next in action on Thursday when they host Italian giants Juventus (3/1 to win, 9/4 the draw) in Group A of the Europa League, before hosting Newcastle in the Premier League next Sunday.

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Speculation has been rampant over the summer that the Spanish star may move on to pastures new after enduring a disappointing campaign at Anfield.

Liverpool failed to qualify for the Champions League after finishing in a lowly seventh place in the Premier League. They now face a third qualifying round clash against Rabotnicki or Mika to qualify for the Europa League.

Torres himself was plagued with injury but the appointment of Hodgson, who succeeded Rafael Benitez in the Liverpool hotseat two weeks ago, is seen by many as the start of a new era at the Merseyside club.

Hodgson was quick to meet his star players, including Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher, but has only just had the opportunity to meet with Torres after the Spaniard returned home following his World Cup exploits.

The Liverpool boss admitted afterwards that he found the striker a “very pleasant man”.

He went on to say “As far as we are concerned he is a Liverpool player and we want him to remain a Liverpool player. He is not for sale and we don’t welcome any offers for him. We want to keep him.

“We spoke about football, the World Cup, his injury, and I told him how much I am looking forward to working with him.”

Hodgson also confirmed that managing director Christian Purslow was at the meeting with Torres and spoke to him for a far greater length of time than he did.

Meanwhile, Liverpool officials flew to Spain to see Torres in order to assess the extent of the injury he sustained in last Sunday?s World Cup final. A slight tear in an adductor muscle has ruled the player out of action for thenext three weeks.

This means that Torres is unlikely to feature in the Europa League clash between Rabotnicki or Mika, whilst it is doubtful whether he will play many pre-season games before Liverpool’s tough opening match against Arsenal on August 15 (Liverpool 5/4, draw 23/10, Arsenal 7/4).

Hodgson has also had talks with Gerrard, which he believes were positive. He made it clear that Liverpool don?t want to sell their captain and also stated that they have had no offers for him, despite rumours to the contrary.

Meanwhile, the situation regarding Javier Mascherano is a little more complicated as Hodgson has yet to receive a response from his texts and voice messages. However, he believes this is not unusual as Mascherano is probably recovering from a gruelling World Cup back in Argentina.

Hodgson also dismissed rumours linking him with a move for Nice striker Loic Remy. He said; “He’s a player who was mentioned to me by the scouting department and a player the club were following before I came.

“He’s a player I know very little about. If I am going to be interested in a player I am going to have to watch him playing, study him and make judgments which I have not been able to.”

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