Manchester City took on Chelsea this afternoon having beaten the West Londoners on each of their last three visits to the Etihad Stadium.

Rafael Benitez's men were looking to close the gap on the Citizens to just one point, but found themselves second best as Roberto Mancini's men wrapped up a deserved 2-0 victory.

Here, Sports Mole takes a closer look to see where the match was won and lost.

Match statistics

Man City
Shots: 15
On Target: 6
Possession: 47%
Corners: 6
Fouls: 20

Chelsea
Shots: 9
On Target: 2
Possession: 53%
Corners: 6
Fouls: 5

Was the result fair?

Yes. City were better in every department today and quite rightly walk away with all three points.

Man City's performance

8/10. Mancini's men were defensively solid and showed plenty of attacking threat. David Silva, Yaya Toure and James Milner all played well, as did Jack Rodwell before he was substituted in the second half. Joe Hart kept out Frank Lampard's penalty early in the second half and that seemed to be the catalyst for their victory.

Chelsea's performance

5/10. The Blues were lucky to be heading into half time on level pegging, but should have taken the lead through Lampard's penalty early in the second half. They did not create any real goal-scoring opportunities and were largely absent as an attacking force. Eden Hazard was the only player who looked like making something happen, as even Frank Lampard and Juan Mata went through the motions. Gary Cahill was solid in defence but could only repel the onslaught for so long. Another disappointing display from the Blues, who see the gap to today's opponents widen to seven points.

Sports Mole's man of the match

Yaya Toure: The Ivorian was crucial to his side's victory today, contributing all over the pitch. He got the all-important opening goal which broke Chelsea's resistance.

Biggest gaffe

Rafael Benitez gets this one for the decision to substitute Eden Hazard in the 68th minute as his team chased the game. It was late in coming and furthermore it was wrong. His replacement was Oscar, which of course is justified in that sense. But with both of them on the pitch Chelsea would have had a better chance of getting something from the game. Mata would have been a more suitable candidate to be replaced, as he was not his usual self today.

Referee's performance

Andre Marriner made the correct decision in awarding Chelsea a penalty for Hart's challenge on Demba Ba. That was the only major decision he had to make. He was kept busy by some frustratingly needless fouling from City in the first half, although there wasn't really a malicious challenge in the game.

What's next?

Man City: Roberto Mancini takes his team to play Aston Villa a week from tomorrow.

Chelsea: The Blues welcome West Bromwich Albion to Stamford Bridge on Saturday.