It's not often that the Saturday lunchtime TV match can still command spreads and big headlines in Monday morning's papers, but then Chelsea versus City was no ordinary match.

As James Ducker in The Times points out, "it was a game that had it all - simmering tension, goals, red cards, goalkeeping clangers, dire defending, breathless counter-attacking and some heroic performances".

He adds, in case anybody was in doubt: "City's real stars were Tevez - who underlined why his team-mates have missed him so much by offering a masterclass in how to lead a line single-handed - and Bellamy, a pest throughout, plus Gareth Barry, who gave Fabio Capello, the England manager, something to cheer by bossing midfield."

Duck, like his Press Box colleagues, was really taken with the way in which Carlos Tevez stepped seamlessly back into the side after flying in the night before from a four-match absence in Buenos Aires: "If this was Tevez fatigued, pity the opposition when he rediscovers full fitness."

He quotes Barry: "I think we got under Chelsea's skin. Once they went 2-1 down and to ten men, they were always going to be chasing the game and that's when you can lose your head, so it was important we stayed strong.

"We'll only have ourselves to blame if we can't come off the back of a result like this and go into the next games with confidence, but it's set up nicely now to finish the game strongly."

Elsewhere in the paper of record, Patrick Barclay, who was at Stamford Bridge, ponders England's game against Egypt and suggests: "The central-defensive issue would be best addressed by a look at Joleon Lescott on Wednesday.

"There will never be a better time for him than in the aftermath of a Manchester City performance of impressive grit at Stamford Bridge, one in which he played splendidly against Didier Drogba, the class of opponent you might encounter at a crucial stage of a World Cup."

Meanwhile, Liam Gallagher has come up with a novel reason for City's resurgence. The former Oasis frontman tells the Mirror: "Now we've split, City are doing good. Maybe there's some good times ahead with City."

Just think where the team might already be if you'd stuck to just the two albums, Liam ...