STAMFORD BRIDGE – Pep Guardiola rarely elicits too much sympathy when he laments Manchester City‘s lack of a conventional striker. Gabriel Jesus may be no Sergio Aguero – or Harry Kane – but a £27m Brazil international with more than a half-century of Premier League goals is a luxury for which most managers would be grateful, rather than a tactical headache.
In Saturday’s 1-0 victory over Chelsea, it was initially Phil Foden and Kevin De Bruyne who could be found occupying the No 9 position as Jesus continued to drift out wide. One playmaker would drop deep, hoping to lure Antonio Rudiger forward, the other would exploit the space.
There was a danger that, just as he had in May’s Champions League final, Guardiola’s tendency to overthink the big occasions would rear its head again. Yet when the breakthrough finally came, it was via a simpler route.
Joao Cancelo found Jesus inside the box before he wriggled clear of Rudiger and Jorginho to get his shot away. That it took a fortunate deflection off the midfielder on its way in did little to take away from a dominant display by City, who reasserted themselves as the team to beat.
They are a squad of problem-solvers on the pitch, De Bruyne, Foden and Jesus willingly the pawns of an experiment which might have backfired had Timo Werner better timed his runs, or had Romelu Lukaku – often the only royal blue shirt in City’s half – been gifted more concrete opportunities on the counter-attack.
Even when in obliging mood, though, it was telling that De Bruyne and Foden managed to up-end Marcos Alonso both going for the same ball. That confusion contributed to zero shots on target in the first half, despite the visitors knocking it around at will to secure almost 70 per cent possession.
It has never been entirely clear whether Guardiola just doesn’t trust Jesus as a striker, or whether some kind of belated epiphany has convinced the 24-year-old that he should be playing on the right. After the 5-0 win over Norwich, Guardiola suggested “he likes to play more wide than central positions”.
Certainly, when he blasted over one of City’s more unforgivable acts of wastefulness, it prompted a reminder of why he has never made that spot his own. Equally, were it not for Thiago Silva’s goalline clearance, he might have scored two.
All of this discounts the presence of Ferran Torres on the bench, who remained an unused substitute. The Spain international has three goals and an assist so far this season and looked set to start after being taken off straight after his goal against Wycombe. Raheem Sterling has also been deployed up front and failed to make much of an impression against Southampton.
Guardiola, of course, deserves praise for running the diagnostics again and again, making the most of a halt in play for Reece James’ injury to hold an impromptu team-talk with Jesus, Kyle Walker and Bernardo Silva. Once the message had been distributed, Foden found himself in far more space out wide. He had struggled to assert himself as a number nine, but went on to create four chances – more than Chelsea’s entire XI.
Eventually, simple maths dictates that Guardiola will run out of different combinations for his front three and settle on one favoured option. It is a frightening prospect what this City team could achieve with a striker, though it shouldn’t be forgotten that they claimed their crown only four months ago operating the same way.
Bad luck for Thomas Tuchel, but it is one of the Premier League’s general truisms that over 38 games, the most accomplished team comes out on top – and in news that will shock very few, except perhaps those who had tentatively begun carving Chelsea’s name on the trophy in September, the champions are still the best team in England.
‘He deserves the best’
Jesus’ goal will have done plenty for his confidence after his first-half miss, but particularly as his afternoon might have been curtailed by a number of robust challenges from Rudiger and Jorginho.
“You have to handle it,” Guardiola said. “Gabriel, go down go up and try again… that’s why he’s one of the best signings we’ve done in this period to help.
“Gabriel deserves the best, a guy who runs for everyone and every time he scores a goal he is the happiest man.”
Guardiola was also celebrating his 221st win as City manager, breaking a club record. “In 221 wins, I never scored one goal,” he joked.
“I share it with all the people in the club, all the staff and players. I cannot deny how proud we are to achieve that to be close to Les McDowall, the previous manager who achieved this record and try to do it more and to do it for the club and to do it here, [against] the Champions league winners.”
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/39BagZO
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