It burned Chelsea at the Eastlands in a match that should raise a lot of red flags amid what has been a very positive season thus far.

Take nothing away from Manchester City, though. They pressured Chelsea from the kickoff and it paid off regardless of how you feel about Howard Webb's decision making. Micah Richards' handball was extremely blatant but, in my opinion, this does not give Chelsea a pass. Cech, once again, made a terrible decision to weakly punch a cross straight back to the opponent. The entire play shouldn't have happened in the first place and City probably deserved at least one from their ownership of the possession and seven consecutive corners in the first half.

What happened on the second goal, aside from the small mountain of yellow cards, was the ultimate example of Chelsea's complete lack of composer as they lost control of the match. Ricardo Carvalho senselessly kicked Carlos Tevez in the back just outside the box after having already made a clearance on the play. This gave Tevez a free kick from extremely close range and he made easy work of it as Cech gambled on the play, instead of letting the shot dictate his movement. Clearly frustrated, Chelsea seemed tounravel as each minute ticked on. City kept the ball and their pressure; the visiting side looked incapable of threatening, let alone scoring.

And yet they still had a chance to level. A golden one. Drogba was hacked down for a penalty and Chelsea looked set to grab a point that they hardly deserved. However, Frank Lampard failed to convert on a penalty for the first time since the 2006 World Cup as Shay Given made the save. Drogba looked to be in alone on the keeper minutes later and managed only to stub it harmlessly wide.

While the quality of Deco and Michael Ballack cannot be questioned, their lack of pace severely crippled Chelsea's build up. Deco picked it up in the waning minutes, but Ballack was correctly subbed off under 20minutes into the second half. He seemed almost disinterested as a handful of balls crossed to his side of midfield fell harmlessly out of bounds when the German was jogging out of position. Ancelotti then had to make a defensive change when an attacking sub was needed after Carvalho's ridiculous yellow card that ultimately cost the match.

The ultimate red flag is the fact that Manchester City may have just published a blue print on how you unnerve a Chelsea defense that has frustrated opponents all season. They rammed possession straight down Chelsea's throat and forced them into errors (yeah, I'm mostly talking about you, Cech). The performance of City's back line was nearly flawless as well. They played within themselves and it makes one wonder why they haven't been able to keep their opposition off the score sheet more often. They should look to receive that kind of defensive effort every week, provided Micah Richards is not out after picking up a knock.

Chelsea has to just treat this match as just a blip on the screen. These types of losses have to be viewed as an out of body experience. "That wasn't us out there, we're much better than that." I would also suggest starting Malouda over Michael Ballack at this point. Ballack is being asked to do things in the diamond that he just can't do. The role is a polar opposite from the one he has for the German National team.  Malouda offers you pace, something Chelsea is desperately lacking with Ballack, Deco and Lampard on all at once. He also gives you a left-footed option for free kicks and he's never afraid to try a shot.

The effort just has to be better. United are the in-form team right now and that should worry Chelsea right now.

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Written by Nick Degel, The Official Chelsea Blogger of the Goalmouth Scramble