Chelsea 0-1 Manchester City: Man City have pushed Chelsea even deeper into trouble. England’s second place team won 0-1 against the number ten, who saw a Champions League ticket disappear further from sight. City benefited from Arsenal’s loss of points and are behind the leaders by five points. Riyad Mahrez scored the only goal after preparatory work by fellow substitute Jack Grealish.
As if the injury list wasn’t long enough, Chelsea lost two more players in the first quarter of the game. Raheem Sterling and Christian Pulisic were out injured; Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Carney Chukwuemeka were their replacements. Despite the setbacks, Chelsea were the better side in the first half. The home side was also the closest to a goal in the first half through Chukwuemeka: the substitute cut in past Kyle Walker and shot from outside the penalty area against the post.
Manchester City asserted itself several times in the first half. Attempts by Ilkay Gündogan and Erling Haaland were too impure to cause problems. Overall, Pep Guardiola’s side were unable to impose their will on Chelsea. However, the visitors made more of an impression in the second half. The pace was a lot higher and that was mainly due to the fact that Manchester City let the ball go around more easily.
2nd half
Apart from a big chance for Thiago Silva, Manchester City beat the clock in the first phase after the break. The dominance resulted in Nathan Aké’s header hitting the crossbar and two dangerous attempts from Kevin De Bruyne before Mahrez opened the scoring. After a low ball from Grealish, which Kepa let pass, Mahrez had the ball for the ball at the far post. Grealish and Mahrez had both come on just minutes before. Through Lewis Hall, Chelsea became dangerous in stoppage time, but the number of serious chances for the 1-1 was very limited. The Blues will have the chance for revenge on Sunday, because then the two clubs will meet in Manchester in the third round of the FA Cup.
