Tevez double lifts City past battling Blackpool

Manchester City slashed Chelsea’s lead at the top of the table to just two points after two goals from talismanic skipper Carlos Tevez and David Silva secured a 3-2 victory in the Premier League at battling Blackpool.

City, who were outplayed for long periods by their newly promoted opponents, moved up to second place after the victory.

Blackpool were desperately unlucky to come away empty-handed after a spirited performance where they more than held their own against cash-rich City at Bloomfield Road.

Earlier, Liverpool’s new American owner John W. Henry looked on at Goodison Park as Roy Hodgson’s Reds crashed to their fourth defeat of the season, leaving them with only six points from eight games.

Liverpool were beaten 2-0 by Everton in the Merseyside derby as the English footballing giants’ new era got off to a bitterly disappointing start.

Goals in each half from Tim Cahill and Mikel Arteta sealed the points for Everton, who moved up to 11th in the Premier League standings as Liverpool slipped to second from bottom.

Blackpool forward DJ Campbell had missed a glorious opportunity to put Blackpool 1-0 up before Gary Taylor-Fletcher had a goal controversially disallowed for offside in the second half.

Tevez then fired City into the lead with a superb clipped finish, before Blackpool fought back to level with a flicked header from Marlon Harewood.

Blackpool’s delight at securing an equaliser was short-lived however as Tevez struck again less than a minute later.

There was a whiff of controversy about the goal however with Tevez appearing to foul Ian Evatt in the build-up.

Spanish international Silva netted a sublime third for City on 90 minutes before Taylor-Fletcher hit back for Blackpool to ensure a nerve-wracking final minute of stoppage time for Roberto Mancini’s men.

Blackpool manager Ian Holloway blamed the loss in large part on referee Phil Dowd.

“He’s got three massive decisions wrong, which cost my team against one of the so-called big teams. For me, we could have been one point behind them if things had gone our way, as they clearly should have done.

“We’re getting absolutely bo diddly squat, week in, week out. But there you go, such is life.”

City boss Roberto Mancini was happy to win ugly.

“Sometimes it is important to win like we did today,” the Italian told Sky Sports.

“Today we didn’t play well. It was important at the end that we scored three goals. It is not easy to score three goals away from home.”