City show title race is not over yet

Making a difference ... Yaya Toure celebrates City's opening goal. Source: Barrington Coombs / AAP

Manchester City galvanised their grip on second place in the Barclays Premier League and trimmed Manchester United's lead back to 12 points with a 2-0 victory at home to nearest rivals Chelsea.

After Chelsea's Frank Lampard had seen a penalty saved by England teammate Joe Hart, City prevailed through a pair of fine second-half goals from man-of-the-match Yaya Toure and substitute Carlos Tevez.

"We can't think that it (the title race) is finished with 11 games to go,'' said City manager Roberto Mancini.

"It's not my mentality or my players' mentality and we need to play like today. Both goals were fantastic.''

		P	W	D	L	GD	Pts
1	Man United	27	22	2	3	33	68
2	Man City	27	16	8	3	26	56
3	Chelsea	27	14	7	6	25	49
4	Tottenham	26	14	6	6	14	48
5	Arsenal	27	13	8	6	22	47
6	Everton	27	10	12	5	7	42
7	West Brom	27	12	4	11	2	40
8	Liverpool	27	10	9	8	15	39
9	Swansea	27	9	10	8	4	37
10	Stoke	27	7	12	8	-6	33
11	Fulham	27	8	8	11	-5	32
12	Norwich	27	7	11	9	-14	32
13	West Ham	26	8	6	12	-9	30
14	Newcastle	27	8	6	13	-10	30
15	Sunderland	27	7	8	12	-7	29
16	Southampton	27	6	9	12	-11	27
17	Wigan	27	6	6	15	-18	24
18	Aston Villa	27	5	9	13	-26	24
19	Reading	27	5	8	14	-18	23
20	QPR	27	2	11	14	-24	17

Mancini also praised the input of goalkeeper Joe Hart who brought down Demba Ba to concede the 50th minute penalty but redeemed himself with an excellent save.

"If they score the penalty, we still had a chance to win because we had another 40 minutes," said Mancini, who has been critical of Hart in the past couple of weeks.

"I think Joe is the best in England and one of the best in Europe and I am pleased for him because he saved a penalty.

"But he could do better before with the long ball; he could be perfect if he wants to."

Although City's chances of retaining their league title remain decidedly slender, they now have a seven-point advantage over Chelsea, who could slip to fourth if Tottenham Hotspur overcome West Ham United on Tuesday morning (EDT).

"When you lose, you have to be disappointed and this game was important for us because we could have been closer to Man City, but we cannot give up,'' said Chelsea interim manager Rafael Benitez.

"We have to fight for the top four because Arsenal, Tottenham and Everton are close behind.''

Benitez admitted the penalty miss was vital to the outcome of the match.

"The penalty is a crucial moment," he said.

"We did not do as well as we were expecting but the penalty could have changed everything.

"It was a good penalty and a good save. Ten minutes later, they score. Then we have to take a risk and it is clear they are a good team."

Both Mancini and Benitez flooded their sides with midfielders at the Etihad Stadium, while Benitez opted to leave John Terry and Fernando Torres on the bench.

At St James' Park, Newcastle United leapfrogged Southampton on the EPL table thanks to a 4-2 victory in a thrilling encounter.

The home crowd were stunned into silence as early as the third minute, when Morgan Schneiderlin gave the Saints an early lead, but it was all Newcastle for the rest of the half.

However, the Toon faithful had to wait until just after the half-hour mark to equalise, when Moussa Sissoko tapped in after Yoan Gouffran's effort had been blocked by Saints' stopper Artur Boruc, then Papiss Cisse's spectacular dipping effort gave Newcastle a deserved lead at the break.

Just as they had in the first period, Southampton came out of the blocks the quickest after the interval, and Rickie Lambert scored his 100th goal for the club from close-range to put the Saints level.

However, a Yohan Cabaye penalty and a bizarre own goal from Jos Hooiveld meant Alan Pardew's men took all three points from this thrilling encounter.

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