Two minutes into stoppage time of Manchester City's 5-0 demolition of Fulham, the chance came. For reasons best known unto himself, Steve Sidwell dallied and waited and pondered and lingered on the ball inside his own six-yard box, before trying one of the most ridiculous diving headers back to his own goalkeeper that the football world would ever have seen.
Reading what would happen, Alvaro Negredo must have been thinking "this is my chance". He's without a goal in a Manchester City shirt for two months.
With David Stockdale left stranded by the weak header, the Spaniard darted in and poked the ball towards the net. The crowd thought it was in and thought it was City's sixth of the afternoon, but he'd prodded it wide. Negredo ended up over the line, but the ball ended up in the pit with the cameramen beside the goal. And, as Negredo stood up, he cut a clearly frustrated figure.
- Report: Toure treble fires City to five
Manuel Pellegrini has tweaked his system in recent weeks -- adding a fifth midfielder and removing a striker to make more of a 4-2-3-1 formation. On Saturday, the manager had little choice but to pick Negredo as his starting lone forward. Edin Dzeko was ill, Sergio Aguero was injured, and Stevan Jovetic was only just back to fitness and hadn't played for a month. And, on a day when the Blues netted five, the striker still didn't score.
Instead, his touches didn't seem to be working and he just couldn't seem to find room for the shot. He's a man who's missing the early-season partnership he had with Aguero and a man who just needs the ball to go into the net with him getting the last touch: head, knee, shin, backside... it doesn't matter.
Rather, the plaudits for the victory will go to Yaya Toure. It's difficult to argue with that, since he scored his first hat-trick of his professional career, but there were some equally good performances from Samir Nasri and James Milner in the midfield. That's not to say it was a classic City display -- far from it -- as Fulham made it difficult for the Blues to work opportunities until after the red card and the second penalty was dispatched. From then, the hosts just kept possession and worked the openings when there was the opportunity, without feeling the need to force it.
To begin with, it could have been one of those matches that the City fans found frustrating; the opening stages were very similar to previous games against Wigan, Stoke, or Norwich, when the Blues had a lot of the ball, but seemed to be going nowhere with it as their opponents remained disciplined. Fulham's discipline, however, lasted 26 minutes -- Fernando Amorebieta giving Negredo a kick up the backside as he tried to control and ball inside the box.
The crowd wanted him off for that foul, but a yellow card was issued as the Spanish striker was heading well wide of the goal. The fans, however, eventually got their wish with the Venezuelan sent off less than ten minutes into the second half for upending David Silva, also inside the box.
The first penalty meant that Yaya Toure broke City's all-time goalscoring record inside a season, netting the home side's 126th in all competitions this year -- beating the last tally of 125 set in Roberto Mancini's title-winning campaign of 2011-12. Meanwhile, the second was the Ivorian's half-century for City.
The third, coming not long after the hour, marked his 20th of the season and his first ever hat-trick -- and in some style too, belting a curling effort from 30 yards out. So, all in all, not a bad day for the central midfielder -- who has been criticised recently for looking disinterested. Some way to answer the critics.
Even the pairing of Martin Demichelis and Joleon Lescott in the back four didn't seem to look shaky. In their previous outings -- notable against Watford and Wigan -- they looked like they were actively trying to make the defence unstable, but on Saturday afternoon the two looked like they had been playing together for years. That said, the fans will still be relieved to see the return of Vincent Kompany for the Manchester derby on Tuesday evening.
With the other teams around the top of the league winning big, it was vital that City did the same. The result at Stamford Bridge has surely put Arsenal as rank outsiders for the title now, with Liverpool coming in behind City and Chelsea. Though both the Reds and the Gunners have to face Pellegrini's men in the coming weeks, in a run that will surely decide who is still going to be in the running come the middle of April.
City have three away games in their next four matches -- travelling to Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool, with a home game with Southampton sandwiched in the middle.
The Blues have been desperate for a big win since the end of January, with the goals coming in ones and twos more than anything else before the rout of Fulham. If the club can get their strikers back fit -- Jovetic joined the action and looked lively, while Aguero is thought to be soon back to health -- and firing, then they should be in with a very good chance.