Carlos Tevez returned from exile to keep Manchester City’s EPL title challenge on course as the Argentine substitute played a crucial role in Wednesday’s 2-1 win over Chelsea at Eastlands.

Inspired by Tevez, City scored twice in the final 12 minutes to move to within one point of Premier League leaders Manchester United, having played the same amount of games as their bitter rivals.

Gary Cahill had given Chelsea a 60th-minute lead, but Tevez came on six minutes later and City equalised through Sergio Aguero’s 78th-minute penalty, awarded for a handball by Michael Essien.

Tevez set up the winner with five minutes to play when he slipped a lovely pass through to Samir Nasri, who calmly clipped his shot over Petr Cech.