While the scoreline only read 1-0, the match clearly showed a dominating performance from Pep Guardiola’s men.
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When fans looked at the footballing calendar for the season and saw Chelsea vs Manchester City, very few would have expected the kind of match that unfolded at Stamford Bridge in the English Premier League (EPL) on Saturday. The champions of Europe were beaten at home by the champions of England. While the scoreline only read 1-0 in City’s favour thanks to a Gabriel Jesus goal, the match clearly presented a dominating performance from Pep Guardiola’s men. The defending champions have leapfrogged Chelsea and Manchester United who were defeated at home by Aston Villa on the same day. City currently sit in second place on the table and will face table-toppers Liverpool in the Premier League next.
City were the better side throughout the match and deserved the win. The breakthrough came in the second half when defender Joao Cancelo collected the ball some 30 yards from goal and struck it towards goal. The ball was deflected into the path of Brazilian striker Gabriel Jesus. He had to twist and turn and then get his balance right before firing a low shot on goal. The ball took yet another deflection and completely wrong-footed Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy. It was 1-0 to City in the 53rd minute.
The stats of the game perfectly told its story. City had 60% of the possession with 15 shots on goal. Four of those 15 were on target. Chelsea, on the other hand, had 40% possession and only five shots on goal. The big worry for manager Thomas Tuchel will be that none of those shots were on target. There was, however, a moment when Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku put the ball in the back of the net for the Blues.
German midfielder Kai Havertz picked up a pass from full-back Marcos Alonso. Havertz knocked the ball into Lukaku’s path who rolled it into an empty net. However, the German was in an offside position initially and the goal was ultimately disallowed. Chelsea did have a number of good passing moves during the course of the game but none of them resulted in anything fruitful.
Jesus seemed a happy man after scoring the decisive goal in one of the biggest games of the Premier League this season. “We prefer to play good, so we come to play against one of the best teams in the world, European champions, they are so good, they have a lot of amazing players. We played very good and won the game,” the Brazilian striker said. “I turned good, shot and got a little lucky but I am very happy to score that goal. The most important thing is that everyone played so good. It is not about the message, we always try to play as good as possible. We have a lot of top players to create the chances and score the goals,” he added.
Manager pep Guardiola was also a happy man after what was an impressive victory for his players. “Today the guys were outstanding. They make me so proud,” he said after the match.
