On March 20, in the thirtieth round of the Premier League, Man City visited Stamford Bridge.
Ancelotti's team had improved somewhat after the Winter Break and quickly surged back into the league's top four. This slightly eased the crisis surrounding Ancelotti's position and also lifted Chelsea's morale.
Man City, meanwhile, was advancing on all three fronts and was now utterly exhausted, both physically and mentally.
As an Italian coach, Ancelotti was highly practical. He did not care about the home-field situation at all. Instead, he sped up the tempo as much as possible from the opening whistle, hoping to overwhelm Man City with a fast-paced game and further drain their stamina.
Guardiola rotated his squad, with players such as Leighton Baines and David Luiz all making their starts.
The two sides battled fiercely throughout the first half, but neither managed to score.
After halftime, Man City still could not break through their opponents.
Chelsea's starting center forward was the heavily purchased Torres, but the Spanish striker's performance was mediocre.
To this day, Torres still had not scored a single goal for Chelsea. It had to be said that this was truly unexpected.
This indirectly confirmed Su Dong, Nuno Cruz, and Begiristain's earlier judgment about Torres's transfer. The Spaniard's injury really was not optimistic. Joining Chelsea at this point was practically following in Shevchenko's footsteps.
And Ukrainian Nuclear Warhead had just personally told Su Dong that his career planning had been a failure.
Nearly sixty minutes into the hard-fought match, Man City launched an attack, and David Luiz suddenly surged forward with the ball.
The Brazilian center-back had excellent technique. Once he got moving with the ball, he was like a tank, charging straight into Chelsea's defensive formation and forcing a foul from Ivanović on the right side of the penalty