Man City 1-0 Chelsea (De Bruyne 70′)
Manchester City took another big step towards defending their Premier League title with a battling 1-0 win over rivals Chelsea.
The champions dominated for long periods but struggled to break down their compact visitors until Kevin De Bruyne scored a brilliant goal from the edge of the box 20 minutes from time.
Although seemingly off balance and with a pass to Raheem Sterling the obvious move, De Bruyne dug the ball out of his feet and curled a shot past the outstretched hand of Kepa Arrizabalaga.
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It had been a cagey match until that point, with both sides fluffing their lines in front of goal on the few occasions that chances presented themselves.
Jack Grealish had the best chance of the first half but was thwarted by Kepa, who dived low to deny the City forward and save the blushes of Kovacic after the Chelsea midfielder ceded possession with a sloppy inside pass in his own third.
Chelsea’s best two chances fell to Romelu Lukaku, one in each half. He played a poor pass to Hakim Ziyech in the first when the shot would have been the better option, before seeing his shot saved by Ederson when through one on one in the second.
City edged the game in the end, with De Bruyne showing the type of precision sorely missing from his compatriot.
Man City vs Chelsea player ratings
Man City
- Ederson 7
- Walker 7
- Stones 7
- Laporte 7
- Cancelo 7
- De Bruyne 9
- Rodri 7
- B Silva 7
- Sterling 9
- Grealish 6
- Foden 7
Subs:
- Gundogan 5
Chelsea
- Kepa 4
- Rudiger 7
- T Silva 6
- Sarr 6
- Azpilicueta 7
- Alonso 4
- Kante 6
- Kovacic 6
- Ziyech 4
- Pulisic 5
- Lukaku 4
Subs:
- Mount 5
- Werner 5
- Hudson-Odoi 5
Player of the match: Raheem Sterling
The chief threat for City came through the electric Raheem Sterling. The England forward ran Alonso ragged, drawing an early foul and booking from the Spaniard, and putting him edge for the rest of the encounter. Unlucky not to win a penalty in the second half when Kyle Walker had strayed offside.
Analysis: Why Grealish escapes the scrutiny heaped on Lukaku
By Daniel Storey, i‘s chief football writer at the Etihad Stadium
Lukaku spent 95 per cent of the match lacking service and five per cent failing to do enough with the scraps he was fed. On the occasions when Chelsea did get in behind, wide of the penalty area, their crosses were woefully under or over-hit.
Lukaku is not blameless in this stagnating relationship, but it’s hard to work out why Tuchel thinks leaving his striker isolated and forcing him to both rely upon long balls and play with back to goal is a viable strategy to make it work. With 10 minutes to go, Tuchel switched up to 4-2-3-1 and played with Mason Mount as a No. 10 close to Lukaku. About 80 minutes too late, Chelsea supporters might say.
But then that is the advantage of playing for Manchester City rather than anyone else. Saturday’s fixture saw the two most expensive signings in Europe last summer in direct competition and both are struggling. Jack Grealish had another of those games: Lots of touches, plenty of bright ideas, occasional glimpses of magic that ultimately came to nought and a missed chance to claw some much-needed confidence. That has pretty much been his season on loop.
But while Lukaku’s tribulations are painfully obvious watching Chelsea, Grealish is able to escape censure and heightened scrutiny because everything around him is working so well. He could (as plenty of Guardiola signings have) take 12 months to settle and everyone will remain broadly patient because City will have won at least one major trophy in the meantime.
That is the harmonic environment that Guardiola has created at this club. They can sign a £100m footballer who flatters to deceive during his first five months at the club and the only result is that everybody assumes that it will just take a little more time. They can welcome the European champions for a crucial league game and nobody considers for a second that they might not win it. Maybe next season; quite possibly not.
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