Manchester City 1 Chelsea 1: match reportCity made to regret missed chances as late Enzo equaliser damages title chances for the home side
Manchester City drew 1-1 with Chelsea and dropped another 2 points following their 0-0 draw away at Sunderland earlier in the week. The result now means that the Blues are 6 points behind league leaders Arsenal. Donnarumma started in goal. Nunes, Gvardiol, Dias, and O’Reilly were in defence. Rodri made a return to the XI alongside Reijnders and Bernardo in midfield. Cherki, Foden, and Haaland were in attack.
Most frustratingly for City is perhaps the fact that they were dominant for much of the game and could not make enough of the chances they had count. Haaland was unable to find the back of the net again, with a header being deflected wide in the 20th minute before he missed a golden chance a few minutes later, hitting the post after a good ball in from Reijnders. City eventually broke the deadlock in the 39th minute, when Cherki passed the ball upfield to Reijnders, who turned and bolted the ball into the back of the net at the near post to give City the lead just before half-time. City’s dominance in the first half had something to show for it. Unfortunately, the second half had a different story.
The first of City’s second half problems came in the 50th minute when Gvardiol went down on the halfway line. Before long it was clear that he was in some pain. The Croatian centre-back could not continue and had to be escorted off the pitch due to the severity of the pain. Khusanov was his replacement. Reijnders was later replaced by Doku to find a second goal.
Foden was played in by Doku who attempted to square the ball to Haaland in a very dangerous position, but his pass was intercepted. He also attempted to play Haaland in minutes later, but the pass was once again intercepted by the Chelsea defence. It had not been the attacks day, with Cherki also struggling to beat his man on many occasions.
City had been mostly solid defensively, with Khusanov impressing after coming on and managing to keep out the Chelsea attack, frustrating Chelsea forward Liam Delap. More defensive woes came for City later, with Ruben Dias needing to come off with an injury as well. Nathan Ake replaced him.
In stoppage time, the Blues were made to pay for not making their domination count. Gusto crossed a ball into the box which found Enzo Fernandez. The Argentine’s initial attempt was saved by Donnarumma before knocking in the rebound to make it 1-1 in the dying moments of the game. A dagger for City. The Blues could not find a winner in the time left and two more crucial points were dropped.
The gap between Arsenal and City/Aston villa who are level on points is six, all with the same number of games played. While the gap is salvageable, the injuries to Gvardiol and Dias have provided extra blows to City’s squad and may have to deal without their starting centre back partnership for quite some time. City face Brighton in midweek next in the Premier League and will then face United away in their next league fixture.
Archives