Stoke City 1 Manchester City 1

Peter Crouch scored a contender for goal of the season as Stoke City dented Manchester City’s title challenge by holding Roberto Mancini’s team to a costly draw. Although Yaya Touré’s deflected 30-yard effort on 77 minutes cancelled out Crouch’s 30-yard volley to move City back to the top of the table, Manchester United can move three points clear if they win their game in hand at home to Fulham on Monday evening. Crouch ensured he derailed City’s challenge in style, however. Imagine a blend of Eric Cantona and Matthew Le Tissier and you might just get the image of the former England striker’s stunning 59th-minute strike. Traditionally, nine games to go is a touch early to fire the starting gun on the title run-in, but former City midfielder Patrick Vieira’s midweek assertion that Paul Scholes’s retirement U-turn at Manchester United was a \'sign of weakness’ at Old Trafford prompted a withering response from Ferguson on Friday which ensured that the psychological warfare has well and truly begun. From this point on, the title race will be defined as much by what happens off the pitch as on it, but the team which emerges as champions will be the one that remembers that points will only be won by events on the field. Ferguson’s riposte to Vieira would have been noted by Mancini’s players, however, and they would have trooped onto the pitch at the Britannia Stadium determined to reply with the win that would take City back to the top of the table ahead of United’s clash with Fulham on Monday. City had to make their point without leading scorer Sergio Agüero, though, after the Argentine was ruled out with an injury sustained in training on Friday. Having planned to pair Agüero with the towering Edin Dzeko against Stoke’s imposing defenders, Mancini was forced to turn to Mario Balotelli, three days after hauling the Italian forward off at half-time against Chelsea due to his woeful performance in that fixture. Few players perform on the basis of their mood more noticeably than Balotelli and, having been subjected to some early bruising challenges by Stoke full-back Andy Wilkinson, the 21 year-old appeared to be heading for another one of his bad days. David Silva, in contrast, was clattered from behind by Marc Wilson and then left with a bandage on a cut head following a raised-arm challenge by Dean Whitehead which prompted Mancini to allege an elbow had been used by the Stoke midfielder. Television replays proved inconclusive, but nonetheless, Silva did not retreat into his shell as Balotelli was threatening to do. City struggled to penetrate the Stoke defence, however, and it was the home side that carried the greater threat in the first half. Jon Walters brought an early save from Joe Hart before the unmarked Cameron Jerome made a hash of an attempted overhead kick from Crouch’s knock-down in the six-yard box. The visitors did not threaten Asmir Begovic’s goal until Dzeko headed over at the far post when he had been teed up by Gaël Clichy’s cross. City full-back Pablo Zabaleta denied Stoke a certain opener on 41 minutes, though, when he cleared Matthew Etherington’s inswinging corner off the line. Etherington’s delivery curled through the six-yard box, but Zabaleta had crucially stayed on his post and he was able to hack the ball to safety. For all of City’s invincibility at the Etihad Stadium, where they still have a 100 per cent record in the league this season, it has been their failings away from home that have prevented them from pulling clear of United in the title race. A run of just two league victories — at Wigan and Aston Villa — on their travels since November has been hugely damaging and City’s vibrant start to the second half suggested that Mancini had spelt out in clear terms the necessity to end that poor run. Dzeko saw a shot well-saved by Begovic within 30 seconds of the restart and Samir Nasri had a low-shot from 20 yards kept out by the former Portsmouth goalkeeper. But Stoke stood firm and they broke the deadlock in spectacular style on 59 minutes when Crouch beat Hart from 30 yards. From Begovic’s clearance to Crouch’s volley hitting the back of the net, the ball did not touch the ground once. Crouch had flicked on the keeper’s kick to Jermaine Pennant and, after receiving the ball back from winger, controlled the ball before unleashing an unstoppable volley underneath Hart’s crossbar. With City trailing, tempers flared and Balotelli was urged to \'calm down’ by referee Howard Webb for a hot-headed challenge on Pennant. But Mancini’s team regained their composure and Yaya Touré’s goal, courtesy of a heavy deflection off Ryan Shawcross’s head, salvaged a point.