It felt like the restoration of the natural order.

Manchester City had failed 12 days ago when Jose Mourinho seemed to have reasserted his tactical supremacy in England. The all-powerful, unstoppable City of the previous few months had been stifled and suddenly no longer seemed invincible.

Yet that result had clearly stung both the City players and their manager, Manuel Pellegrini. So good were City in the rematch that you were left wondering whether that earlier defeat was just an illusory moment; that the hard reality of the season is that City are overwhelmingly the dominant team in England.

The scoreline suggested a reasonable contest but it massaged the truth. Other than the injured John Terry, Chelsea lined up full strength whereas City, with Barcelona in mind, made five changes to the team that lost 1-0 to Chelsea

Yet City were dominant from start to finish. In fact, it was difficult to recall a decent chance created by the visitors over the 90 minutes.

City not only buzzed with creativity, with David Silva and James Milner both excellent, but also overpowered Chelsea.

Mourinho may have won the previous tactical battle but this was a stark reminder that systems will only ever take you so far. With a squad like Manchester City’s, you can make 4-4-2 look progressive.

But Pellegrini is a man who dislikes fuss. ‘It was not revenge,’ he said, as Vincent Kompany was speaking of just that. ‘It wasn’t a masterclass in tactics,’ he said, puncturing the fuss of the last game.

‘For me, the important thing was to beat a great team. And also there were a lot of questions after the Chelsea game: are we going to change our way of playing? I always said we will not change our way of playing.’

Both managers drew attention to City’s postponed game on Wednesday leaving them in better condition. ‘It was very important we didn’t play,’ said Pellegrini.

‘The team were not fresh and that is why we had a little down in our performances against Chelsea and Norwich. But working again with the team on Thursday and Friday, I was absolutely sure that today we were going to have a very good game.

‘Today we saw again the team that were playing before the last two games. It was very important to have the performance that we had. I don’t think Chelsea had a chance to shoot.’

So good were City that they muted Mourinho. Not literally, of course, but there was a more demure tone to his analysis. ‘They played much better than us, they deserved much more than us to win,’ said Mourinho. ‘I think today is simple to analyse: they were the best team; they won.’

Being Mourinho, he had a gripe about the referee and his assistants in the second half, but with some cause concerning the second goal, in which Silva appeared just offside.

He did add though: ‘But would we have won the game with a perfect referee team? No. They were better than us. The second goal was offside but they would win 1-0 because we were never close to score or to scare them.’

First to the ball and pressing manically, City never allowed Chelsea time to settle. The poise of Nemanja Matic was disrupted and John Obi Mikel struggled as Yaya Toure asserted his usual dominance, ably helped by Javi Garcia.

This was the powerful agile City, so quick to move the ball that even accomplished opponents struggle. After only 16 minutes they had gone close when Toure smashed a shot which Petr Cech fumbled, allowing Stevan Jovetic to chip over the goalkeeper but off the crossbar.

The relief was brief. A minute later Silva found Edin Dzeko, who played a superb ball to open up space for Jovetic. The Montenegro striker finished delightfully in what would turn out to be his best performance since he arrived last July.

Chelsea briefly threatened a response when Branislav Ivanovic charged down the right wing and pulled back a cross that Costel Pantilimon fumbled, almost allowing in Samuel Eto’o. But Dzeko missed a glorious opportunity to consolidate City’s dominance just on half-time, failing to connect with Milner’s excellent cross.

Chelsea were suddenly uncertain and Mourinho reacted. Off came Eto’o at half-time and on went Mohamed Salah to play the central striking role. It was a dramatic move and recognition that something needed to change.

It made no impact. Nasri, who has been out for a month with knee injury, arrived on 61 minutes and he took just another seven to announce his return. City’s dominance was stretching Chelsea and when Kompany found Nasri 40 yards from goal, he was completely unmarked in a sea of space. The Frenchman simply turned and drove on, releasing Silva, who looked just offside.

Still, the Spaniard then produced the pass of the match, an exquisitely deft cutback that fell directly into the path of Nasri, who had not stopped running and who had the easiest of close-range chances to make it 2-0.

The Etihad Stadium was awash with appreciation — and derision for Mourinho. When Joleon Lescott headed in on 76 minutes an even more humiliating scoreline beckoned, but Chelsea were saved by the offside flag. Still, the result was never in doubt. This was City at their emphatic best

—Daily Mail