Johnny On The Spot: #STATEMENT-MADE. Menacing Manchester City have maintained the title chase pressure on Liverpool throats at a rocking Etihad with an extraordinary dismantling of a star studded Chelsea who were shown the exit door from the top flight’s top four with ruthless efficiency. Spearheaded by the brilliance of Kun Agüero, his place in the pantheon of Premier League greats now assured, City reduced Chelsea’s Sarriball to Sorriball.
Their spirit typified by a boisterously happy dugout, Pep Guardiola’s bristling squad delivered outstanding performances with incredible fluency as the reigning champions goal scoring tally for the calendar year broke the 40 barrier. Effortlessly backing off then roaring up through the gears at will, City registered a quite simply brilliant win built upon the blistering pace of Raz Sterling and the breathless off the ball hunger of Bernardo Silva.
And what of Aguero? An Alan Shearer rivalling 11th Premier League hat-trick. The travesty of the modern age is that this exceptional footballer, our new all-time top league scorer, has never been officially recognised in England despite years of astonishing consistent scoring.
This was in fact Chelsea’s 1,070th game since they last conceded 6 goals in the league, a 7-0 Division 1 defeat at Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest in April 1991. Just wow. Mr Sarri, who walked straight down the tunnel without shaking Pep’s hand, could yet be the next erstwhile esteemed manager to hit the Chelsea revolving door out of London having now equalled the club’s Premier League record of failing to score in three consecutive away fixtures. Brexit narked Roman Abramovich is being given much to ponder. 6-0 flattered them despite what looked to be their best efforts. For the champions part, their five goals plus in a game occasions under Guardiola are now into the 30’s, and Manchester’s Blues will head for their first well earned week off for months bursting with confidence and belief.
Meanwhile, the media’s People’s Champions elect, the increasingly creepy cult resembling Liverpool, now faced with a 10 goal deficit on City, must next take their game in hand to Sir Alex Ferguson’s resurgent shadow operation whom they humiliated at Candlefield earlier in the season. The title race pendulum could be about to swing decisively. One wonders tonight if we are to be treated again this week to more pontificating bleating from certain hacks calling for City to show more respect to flattened opposition like Burton Albion by scoring less goals. The increasingly desperate hope these be-grudgers live in is eating them alive.
JB’s Man of The Match: Bernardo Silva. Through endeavour to the stars.
The Etihad Stadium
FA Premier League
2/10/2019 4:00 pm
Attendance: 54,452
Referee: Mike Dean of the Wirral
| Manchester City | Chelsea | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sterling (4'), Agüero (13',19', 56'pen), Gündogan (25'), Sterling (80') | |||||||
| 31 Ederson | 1 Kepa Arrizabalaga | ||||||
| 2 Kyle Walker | 28 Cesar Azpilicueta | ||||||
| 5 John Stones | 2 Antonio Rüdiger | ||||||
| 14 Aymeric Laporte | 30 David Luiz | ||||||
| 35 Oleks Zinchenko | 3 Marcos Alonso | Emerson 73' | |||||
| 8 Ilkay Gündogan | 7 N'Golo Kanté | ||||||
| 25 Fernandinho | Silva 75' | 5 Jorginho | |||||
| 17 Kevin De Bruyne | Mahrez 68' | 8 Ross Barkley | Kovacic 52' | ||||
| 20 Bernardo Silva | 11 Pedro | Loftus-Cheek 65' | |||||
| 10 Sergio Agüero | Gabriel Jesus 65' | 9 Gonzalo Higuaín | |||||
| 7 Raheem Sterling | 10 Eden Hazard | ||||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| 3 Danilo | 12 Ruben Loftus-Cheek | ||||||
| 19 Leroy Sané | 13 Wilfredo Caballero | ||||||
| 21 David Silva | 17 Mateo Kovacic | ||||||
| 26 Riyad Mahrez | 18 Olivier Giroud | ||||||
| 30 Nicolas Otamendi | 22 Willian | ||||||
| 33 Gabriel Jesus | 27 Andreas Christensen | ||||||
| 49 Aro Muric | 33 Emerson | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 15 | Goal attempts | 12 |
| 10 | On Target | 4 |
| 2 | Corners | 2 |
| 9 | Fouls | 13 |
| 1 | Yellow Cards | 2 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 54 | % | 46 |