Manchester City have thrashed the Blues with a margin of 1-0 at Etihad Stadium. But the scoreline is not suggesting the whole story. Manchester City literally toyed with the Chelsea players at their home ground. City have clearly shown today why they are going to win the Premier League title this season.
The match had started with Chelsea situated at the fifth position in the League Table and the Blues desperately need a win to get back into the top four. In this high voltage match, Antonio Conte preferred to start with a false nine, without any striker in the starting lineup. Both Alvaro Morata and Olivier Giroud were on the bench in this match while Pedro, Willian, and Hazard started at the upfront of the field for Chelsea.
In the first half, we saw the complete dominance of Manchester City in terms of ball possession. Chelsea had less than 30 percent of ball possession and were not able to create a move towards Goal in the first half. On the other hand, Manchester City had created several chances. One shot of Leroy Sane was saved from the Goal line by Cesar Azpilicueta. Antonio Conte’s men were defending deep. There was no intention of creating any move. They were completely dependent on one magical run with the ball by one of Pedro, Hazard or Willian. Somehow, Chelsea were able to keep the scoreline 0-0 after the end of the first half.
Manchester City had got their all-important goal at the beginning of the second half within 40 seconds of the kickoff. Chelsea’s defense was unsettled for a moment of time. One faulty pass of Christensen towards Aguero had caused all sorts of problems for the Blues. Aguero passed the ball towards David Silva who had provided a perfect cross towards Bernardo Silva. Bernardo Silva had committed no mistake to put the ball into the net. Marcos Alonso was too much slow to cover the ground and Bernardo Silva had easily got the ball beating the former one with pace.
After conceding the Goal, Chelsea’s approach didn’t change much. There were no good moves from the players and Eden Hazard was clearly ineffective as the false nine. Manchester City were continuing to keep the possession after scoring the Goal too. Antonio Conte delayed his substitutions once again in this season against the big clubs. He brought both Morata and Giroud in for Hazard and Willian. But it was too late for them to equalize the scoreline for Chelsea. The match had ended with Manchester City emerging victorious against the previous season Champions Chelsea with a margin of 1-0.
It was 4th defeat in the last 5 matches for Chelsea in the Premier League and it had caused them hugely. They are now 5 Points adrift of the 4th placed Tottenham Hotspur with 9 matches still to play. Manchester City are now at the top of the League Table in Premier League with 78 Points in 29 matches and with this win, they are now one step ahead towards winning the Premier League title this season.
