There was no dropping to the knees in jubilation this time, there was no place in an elite cup final as a reward, nor was there an epic fight-back attempt from the opposition, but on Saturday Avram Grant once again inflicted defeat upon Rafael Benitez.

The Portsmouth boss was at the helm of the Chelsea side which battled to an aggregate 4-3 win over Liverpool in the Champions League semi finals in April 2008 and Grant was the brains behind the Reds’ latest setback in a wretched season as Pompey strolled to a 2-0 win at Fratton Park at the weekend.

Despite not showing the same emotion as he did on that successful night at Stamford Bridge, the win will mean every bit as much as he sets about his task of saving the club from the drop after taking over from Paul Hart late last month.

It was a battle of the Premier League’s two biggest crisis clubs as financial worries and on-field performances have marred both Liverpool’s and Portsmouth’s seasons, with the latter deservedly coming out on top on this occasion.

But it is the former who continue to raise eyebrows throughout the country as there seems no end to Liverpool’s dreadful form, which has seen them lose 7 of their 18 games Premier League games.

Catastrophic, I think, is the best word to describe the job Benitez has done this season and, bearing in mind the club suffered an early Champions League exit this time around, any other manager would have been sacked for their sequence of results by now.

The Spaniard’s lucrative and lengthy contract has so far saved him the embarrassment of getting the chop, that’s if he isn’t embarrassed enough by sinking to the new low of losing to the league’s basement club.

However, Benitez is not the only figure for which to point the finger at after their latest defeat – Javier Mascherano’s first-half red card may have been harsh, but it is the little Argentine’s poor form this season which has gone widely unnoticed.

The Argentina captain’s head was turned in the summer when European Champions Barcelona made their interest known, with reports of a £30million bid in January resurfacing on the back pages as the January transfer window approaches.

Mashcherano’s heart just does not seem in it anymore in a red shirt and he has done little this season to suggest he is worth that price tag, and I for one would bite Pep Guardiola’s hand off if he came in with an offer in that region.

Perhaps his four-match ban (it was his second red card of the season) coupled with a spell on the treatment table as the clumsy challenge, which earned him his marching orders and ligament damage, will prove a blessing in disguise for Benitez, who will now surely give Alberto Aquilani the run in the side he deserves. Time will tell how important Mascherano’s absence really is to Liverpool over the busy Christmas schedule.

Regarding Benitez, if there is one thing we have learned about his managerial credentials this term, it’s that he does not possess the ability to win the Premier League, and even fans as patient as Liverpool ones would now be glad to see the back of his Spanish contingent should he quit amid his failings.

The Spanish Armada set sail with the intention of conquering England in 1588 and Benitez had similar ambitions in English football when he took over at Anfield in the summer of 2004.

Like the Armada, the Liverpool boss and his backroom staff of many compatriots have failed to triumph in the country by landing an elusive Premier League crown, and I for one would now encourage him to mirror that historical event further by accepting defeat, giving up and going home.

As for Grant’s Pompey side, they should not get too carried away by the win over an increasingly bland Liverpool side. After that creditable semi final win over Liverpool while at Chelsea, Grant went on to lose the final and ended up empty handed for the season, and I fear his Pompey side face similar disappointment come the end of the season.

After all, losing to one of the eventual relegation victims is a tradition of the Reds. Middlesborough last season, Reading the season before that – the list goes on and on, as does their tally of defeats this term.

Match details
Saturday 12 December 2009, 3:00PM

Reebok Stadium Att: 22735
Barclays Premier League

Referee:
Mark Clattenburg (County Durham)
Teams
Bolton Wanderers:

Jaaskelainen, K.Davies, Taylor, Knight, Robinson, Chung-Yong, Steinsson, Cahill, Muamba (Davies 82), Cohen, Klasnic (Elmander 74)

Unused subs:
Al Habsi, O,Brien, Elmander, M. Davies, Samuel, Basham, Ricketts

Bookings:
Klasnic 45mins, Davies 54, Cohen 59,
Manchester City:

Given, Richards, Toure, Lescott, Sylvinho, Wright-Phillips (Ireland 22), Barry, Kompany (Robinho 74), Bellamy, Tevez, Adebayor (Santa Cruz 83)

Unused subs:
Taylor, Onuoha, Zabaleta, Ireland, Petrov, Robinho, Santa Cruz

Bookings:
Sylvinho (61mins), Bellamy (53 and 68)

Mark Hughes men must feel that the world and his dog is against them in their attempt to break the status quo this season.

Every time an opportunity presents itself for them to make it into the top four fate rears its cruel head. As the Blues finished this game with ten men and Bolton held on for a three all draw.

With Tottenham losing and United playing Aston Villa his was another chance to push into those Champions League places but alas a linesman and referee were the protagonists in this festive pantomime.

In a North West derby that had six goals, an off side goal and a ridiculous red card every neutral got their fill, but Gary Megson will feel his fighters just dragged themselves over the finish line in what could prove to be a pivotal point for the Trotters.

The game started off well after some early Wimbledonesque pressure by Bolton the Trotters received a welcome piece of look.

A ball was fired into the six yard box from the City left to find Ivan Klasnic in a world record offside position to simply tap the balll into the net past a helpless Shay Given.

If the Bolton striker had been that far ahead of his opponents in a hundred metre race by the firing pistol had been fired he would have already been across the finish line.

Of course Bolton are not to blame, as they’d take anything to get them out of their rut at the moment, but serious questions have to be asked to why the linesman decided to keep his flag down by his side.

Bolton did what they do best in battering and bruising the Blues into losing their composure as much as they could. Fullback Robinson carried out his bosses orders of taking out Shaun Wright Phillips as soon as possible. Robinson not known for being subtle kindly obliged with a tackle that was as malicious as it was hard.

Within minutes SWP had hobbled off and was replaced by Steven Ireland, which changed the dynamics of the game. City know were more calculated in their approach and Ireland and Tevez began to pull the strings.

It was Carlos Tevez who put the Blues level by wriggling free on the edge of the box and hitting a shot that deflected off a diving Bolton defender past the helpless Bolton keeper.

Then against the run of play the pantomime continue as centreback Cahill tripped over the ball to send Ireland and Barry the wrong way before turning and firing in a vicious curler into the top righthand side of Shay Given.

It was a glorious piece of opportunism by the young England hopeful to put City behind for the second time in the match.

The Blues are a different kettle of fish this season though as they have shown on many occasions that they hae the resilience to come back into matches and in a fantastic sweeping move involving six City players Richards fired the ball past the Bolton number one.

The second half continued to throw up surprises as the Blues looked to build on their victories over Arsenal and Chelsea last week. After some early City pressure it was Bolton who went ahead for the third time in sublime fashion.

After a decent ball into the box the ball was expertly flicked on by Davies to the waiting Klasnic who smashed his volley into the net for is second of the game.

What happened next was bizarre as Bellamy was one on one with the already carded Robinson and went down after it appeared he’d been clipped outside the box.

Strangely Bellamy was yellow carded by pantomime villain Mark Clatternburg who subsequently showed the shocked Welshman a red card.

Unknown to many Bellamy had been booked for complaining after the Klasnic goal but this red was more than suspect as Hughes contemplated how to win the game with ten men.

What was more suspect was the fact that both Cohen and Klasnic could have been sent off for repeated offences yet the referee deemed them untouchable in this contest.

Down for the the third time and down to ten men the City of old would have almost certainly capitulated, but Hughes’ City have mettle.

It was Tevez again who brought them back into the contest after running at the Bolton defence to fire a fantastic low shot past Jaskelaanen into the bottom right corner.

As the game came to an end it was Bolton who looked the most nervous with City going for the jugular and coming close through Lescott and a Robinho shot.

But it wasn’t to be for City as Bolton held on for a point and the Blues failed to take the three points that they needed to go up the league.

MAN OF THE MATCH: CARLOS TEVEZ – The pocket dynamo dragged histeam through this miefield of a contest to almost snatch a victory. Two quality goals from the Argentinian forward.

MAN CITY 2 CHELSEA 1

Adebayor og 8

Adebayor 37, Tevez 56

Man City: Given, Richards (Onuoha 69), Toure, Lescott, Bridge (Kompany 74), De Jong, Barry, W-Ph’lips, Tevez, Robinho (Zabaleta 90), Adebayor.
Chelsea: Cech, Ivanovic, Carvalho (Belletti 64), Terry (Malouda 88), A Cole, Essien, Ballack (Mikel 64), Lampard, Deco, Drogba, Anelka.

Ref: H Webb

Attendance 47,348

In the past City have been too fragile psychologically or guilty of not having players up for the physical battle against the Londoners brute strength.

In Drogba and Anelka up front backed up by Lampard, Essien and Ballack, you have a midfield powerhouse that is the most dominating midfield in the world.

In midweek City showed signs that they had that physical brute force to compete for the first time by crunching the life out of Arsenals talented young gunners.

Yet the scintillating performance today proved to millions watching that this City side now has the power to go with the skill and fancy footwork to trouble any defence in the world.

With the players such as Lescott, De Jong, Richards, Barry and Kompany City are no longer the bullied, but the bullies of the playground.

City began the game showing the same intensity as against Arsenal and looked the better side with more shots on target and corners, but fell behind to an own goal form Emmanuel Adebayor.

No one would think that the best team in Europe at the moment would have then gone on to take control of the game, but nothing could be further from the truth as City showed another part of their new character.

The new resilience that has seen City only beaten once all season was again evident as the Sky Blues immediately pressured the Chelsea midfield, playing some exhilarating stuff stretching the Chelsea fullbacks and interchanging passes at will.

City finally broke the deadlock after a centre was floated into the Chelsea area and after the ball had found its way to Adebayor the big front man lashed it into the net.

Key a predictable mass protest from Chelsea, but it was to be in vain as the goal would stand and Webb waved the players back to the centre circle.

You know you have Chelsea on the back foot, when Ashley Cole is acting like a petulant school boy as if the opposition should not have the right to be on top.

The second half continued began with the same intensity as the first with both sides looking to impose their dominance on the game.

It was City spurred on by their magnificent support that began to look like the superior team again.

After a period of intense pressure, City finally found the breakthrough when a free kick was fired in by the electric Carlos Tevez past a Peter Cech that Paul Merson had previously lorded as the best in the business last week- Nice one Toady!

You need a nut-cracker to break a hard nut as Arsenal found out to their cost last weekend and City certainly were cracking bones with Lescott and Bridge giving Drogba a hard time and De Jong showing Essien there is more than one master of destruction in this league.

City, after recent collapses, understandably had a period of uncertainty when Chelsea created a few chances.

Drogba went close on a couple of occasions and Chelsea looked like they would get an undeserved goal.

Both Wayne Bridge and Micah Richards had become casualties in this all out war and had to be replaced by Nedum Onuoha and Vincent Kompany respectively.

Gareth Barry was shifted to left back and although already exhausted and on a yellow, proved his value to the team with a composed display.

Onouha on the other hand, made the mistake of letting Drogba get goal side and a rash challenge brought the Ivory Coast star for a definite penalty.

What happened next transformed this game into a Premier League classic with all forty-eight thousand fans in the stadium, millions worldwide watching and all of the Premier League teams held their breath as Frank Lampard faced off with Shay Given.

The resulting penalty save was met with shock and exultation from no doubt everybody not wearing Chelsea Blue as Given denied Lampard’s nervous penalty making every England fan sit nervously on their chair at a similar prospect next summer in South Africa.

It seemed as though every Chelsea player had been booked, including the subs by the time John Terry was forced to leave the field but there were to be no defensive lapses this week however, as City closed out the game after six minutes of stoppage time.

Tevez and Richards were fantastic, but none of it would have been possible without winning the infantry battle against Lampard, Ballack and Essien, and Nigel De Jong’s destructive presence in midfield puts him up there with the very best defensive midfielders in the world.

Manchester City’s Billionaires proved too much for the young guns of Arsenal as they blew them away in a three goal second half display.

Goals from Carlos Tevez, Shaun Wright Phillips and Vladimir Weiss scored to set up a mouthwatering Semi Final against local neighbours and Champions United.

The first leg will be played at the City of Manchester stadium on the fourth of January and it looks sure to be a grudge match for the Blue half of Manchester.

After one of the most exciting derbies in history, City will undoubtedly want payback for the 4-3 defeat at Old Trafford after Ferguson’s team scored in the seventh minute of a criminally long extra stoppage time period.

United themselves booked their place in the semis with a victory over

Elsewhere, Portsmouth new boss Avram Grant watched his side lose yet again, this time at the hands of Aston Villa.

Although Pompey went ahead, through a Stilian Petrov own goal, goals form Emile Heskey, James Milner and Stewart Downing silenced the Fratton Park faithful. Veteran Nigerian striker Kanu added a faint hope on 87 minutes

before Ashley Young settled the Villa fans nerves and sent the Midlands club through to the next round.

They will face the winners of the tie of the round in Blackburn, who pulled off a shock penalty shoot out victory out of the hat. New signing Kakuta missed the vital penalty as Chelsea were stunned by the Lancashire side.

The score had been tied at 3-3 before a dramatic penalty shoot out was settled when

THE DRAW

MANCHESTER CITY v MANCHESTER UNITED

BLACKBURN ROVERS v ASTON VILLA

1st Leg matches due to be played week commencing 4th January 2010.

2nd Leg matches due to be played week commencing 18th January 2010.

BOOKIES’ FAVOURITES

The bookmakers have made Manchester United odds on favourites, but if City do manage to beat them then look for a City-Villa final and another possible penalty shoot out between two evenly matched sides.

Dutch international defender Gregory van der Wiel is the latest young star to be linked with City in press around the world.

The 21-year-old 5 foot 6 right full-back became a regular in the Ajax side last term under coach Marco van Basten and also made his debut for the Dutch national side to boot.

He looks set to star at the next World Cup in South Africa and City have been following his progress for some time now.

With their defence still looking decidedly shaky, even after their multimillion dollar face lift, the Citizens of Manchester are scouring the transfer market to plug the wide open gaps in their defence.

Whether Mark Hughes will be the man to actually sign the Dutch youngster up is another matter though as a quarter final cup exit against Arsenal and a defeat against Chelsea on Sunday could see the Welsh supremo receive his marching orders.

According to his agent, Van der Weil is not fazed by the constant rumours linking him with Europe’s top clubs.

And although Hakim Slimani maintains Van Der Wiel has been watched closely by the Blues, he does state that matters stop there for now.

Slimani said: “There is no official contact between Ajax and Manchester City.

“But I cannot deny that his performance has been closely followed by Manchester City.”

Slimani insists Van Der Wiel is one hundred percent focused on seeing out his contract at Ajax Amsterdam which has three years left still to run.

“That’s why Greg is not concerned with a transfer to another club,” continued Slimani.

“He’s just broken through last season.

“This season he has set himself the target of being a major player for Ajax.”