Manchester City were desperate for a win to keep alive their slimmest of hopes of retaining the English Premier League title, and the reigning champions dominated a poor Chelsea side from start to finish to cut the lead at the top to 12 points.
Brilliant strikes from Yaya Toure and Carlos Tevez gave the home side a 2-0 win over the Blues at the Etihad, in a game which saw Frank Lampard miss a crucial penalty which could have tilted things in the away side's favor.
City began the game in complete control, with the trio behind Sergio Aguero -- David Silva, Toure and James Milner -- running things, while Jack Rodwell, getting a rare start, also put himself about.
Matija Nastasic was the first to test Petr Cech, with the defender seeing his header from eight yards well kept out by the Chelsea goalkeeper.
The Blues had Gary Cahill to thank for the scores remaining 0-0 in the first 45 minutes, with the England defender making a couple of inspired blocks when it looked like City were nailed-on to score.
Aguero missed a golden opportunity, when the chance went astray as he labored on the ball, while Rodwell forced consecutive saves from Cech - first off a 25-yard effort, and second off a header from the ensuing corner.
Knowing that a 15-point lead would as good as hand Manchester United the title with a mere 11 games remaining, City came out in search of that elusive goal after halftime, but things went awry in the 50th minute.
Demba Ba went down, a little too easily it must be said, under the challenge of Joe Hart, with referee Andre Marriner pointing to the spot.
Lampard, who had scored ten straight penalties prior to taking this one, stepped up to take the spotkick, driving one low and hard towards the bottom corner, only to see Hart make a fabulous diving save with his right hand - the goal, had it gone in, would have been Lampard's 200th for his club.
City inspired by that save from their goalkeeper poured forward looking for that elusive opener, and they finally broke through via some brilliance from Toure.
The midfielder found some space inside the box and skipped a couple of rather tame challenges before curling a delightful strike past the despairing dive of Cech.
Chelsea, despite going a goal down, hardly threatened the City defense, and this game was definitely one of their flattest performances in the entire season.
The game was put to bed by substitute Tevez, who fired home a perfect 22-yard effort into the top corner.
In the day's other game, Newcastle got the better of Southampton 4-2. Morgan Schneiderlin opened the scoring for the Saints in the third minute, before goals from Moussa Sissoko and Papiss Cisse - a goal of the season contender - gave the Magpies a 2-1 halftime lead.
Rickie Lambert quickly made it 2-2, five minutes into the second half, but a Yohan Cabaye penalty and a Jos Hooiveld own goal wrapped the game up nicely for the home side at St James' Park.
