Johnny On The Spot: #BORN OF FRUSTRATION. Manchester City’s unbeaten domestic run has come undone at Chelsea. An attritional phase of the season is upon us. Despite absolutely dominating this contest for 44 minutes, City uncharacteristically beat themselves in a first half wherein they did not hurt a well martialled Chelsea where it mattered. Maurizio Sarri’s men benefitted throughout this game from a solid central defence who provided outstanding cover to their goalkeeper who in truth was not tested. With a high tempo work rate built upon that platform, once ahead, the cockney aristocrats were galvanised into taking the game to the champions who shorn of David Silva’s influence due to injury and eventual withdrawal could not attack with cohesion. Consequently, right across City’s forward line our main men just could not make superiority tell in the final third with the radar right off. The second half saw some poor first touches and we looked rattled. Chelsea thoroughly deserved their win overall. Admittedly this constitutes a night to forget but the point of order is that this is astonishingly only our 3rd league defeat in 61 games and Pep Guardiola will remind us that we have a defeat out of the road that should redefine our hunger. Furthermore, an intensive run of fixtures gives us no opportunity to dwell upon it. That said, the squad must now dig deeper as a lengthy injury list persists. Liverpool’s continuing momentum means there is no further margin for error until they come to town. JB’s Man Of The Match: Fernandinho. Irreplaceable.
Stamford Bridge
FA Premier League
12/08/2018 5:30 pm
Referee: Michael Oliver of Northumberland
| Chelsea | Manchester City | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kanté (45'), David Luiz (78') | |||||||
| 1 Kepa | 31 Ederson | ||||||
| 28 Cesar Azpilicueta | 2 Kyle Walker | ||||||
| 2 Antonio Rüdiger | 5 John Stones | ||||||
| 30 David Luiz | 14 Aymeric Laporte | ||||||
| 3 Marcos Alonso | 18 Fabian Delph | ||||||
| 7 N'Golo Kanté | 20 Bernardo Silva | ||||||
| 17 Mateo Kovacic | Barkley 65' | 25 Fernandinho | |||||
| 11 Pedro | 21 David Silva | Gündogan 68' | |||||
| 5 Jorginho | 26 Riyad Mahrez | Foden 84' | |||||
| 10 Eden Hazard | Giroud 90' | 7 Raheem Sterling | |||||
| 22 Willian | Loftus-Cheek 75' | 19 Leroy Sané | Jesus 53' | ||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| 4 Cesc Fàbregas | 3 Danilo | ||||||
| 8 Ross Barkley | 4 Vincent Kompany | ||||||
| 12 Ruben Loftus-Cheek | 8 Ilkay Gündogan | ||||||
| 13 Wilfredo Caballero | 30 Nicolas Otamendi | ||||||
| 18 Olivier Giroud | 33 Gabriel Jesus | ||||||
| 27 Andreas Christensen | 47 Philip Foden | ||||||
| 33 Emerson | 49 Aro Muric | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 8 | Goal attempts | 14 |
| 5 | On Target | 4 |
| 1 | Corners | 13 |
| 12 | Fouls | 11 |
| 2 | Yellow Cards | 0 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 39 | % | 61 |