It was "written in the stars" that Frank Lampard would come back and score against Chelsea.

That's how Pat Nevin sees it as he joined us on Off The Ball tonight after the 1 - 1 draw with Manchester City.

While Lampard's dagger to the heart and Manuel Pellegrini's post-match jibes at Jose Mourinho's "small team" tactics overshadowed things, Pat does not think Mourinho will be too bothered by criticisms of the typically conservative football.

Pellegrini said Chelsea played like Stoke. But what came first? The chicken or the egg?

"He did play a not-too-dissimilar game to last season and it worked absolutely perfectly. Pellegrini said it was like playing against Stoke. Do you know the reason why Stoke played that way against Manchester City? It's because they watched Chelsea doing it last year and it worked!"

Meanwhile, Manchester United's weaknesses were hopelessly exposed in a 5 - 3 defeat at Leicester City and in criticising the defence, Pat says United's title challenge can be written off.

"You write off Manchester United this season at your peril. They're not going to win the league. But even after that, I wouldn't write them off yet from getting into the Top Four."

But he does believe that the penalty awarded against Rafael when United were 3 - 1 up was a bad decision and also assessed the performance of Falcao and Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard this weekend.