Second-half goals from Nico O’Reilly, Marc Guehi and Jeremy Doku helped City trim the deficit to six points ahead of next week’s Etihad Stadium clash.
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Manchester City cut the gap to six points on leaders Arsenal after beating Chelsea (John Walton/PA)open image in gallery
Manchester City cut the gap to six points on leaders Arsenal after beating Chelsea (John Walton/PA) (PA Wire)
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Manchester City’s pursuit of the Premier League title gained momentum with a dominant 3-0 win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge which cut the gap at the top to six points.
Arsenal’s defeat to Bournemouth on Saturday had opened the door for Pep Guardiola’s side to take charge of their own destiny and after a slow first half in west London, they emerged after the break to blow the home side away with three goals in 17 minutes to put real pressure on the league leaders.
Nico O’Reilly continued his scoring streak to break the deadlock in the 50th minute, Marc Guehi slotted in his first league goal for the club then Jeremy Doku pounced on an awful error by Moises Caicedo to complete Chelsea’s humiliation.
City appear to be coming into form just as Arsenal’s is deserting them but the Blues did their London rivals no favours here, collapsing in the face of more powerful and clinical opposition to leave their own hopes of reaching the Champions League in serious doubt.
The early promise which accompanied Liam Rosenior’s first month in charge has evaporated, leaving in its place the same old doubts over the mental fortitude of this young squad and the club’s general direction under the current ownership.
As for City – whose supporters sang “are you watching Arsenal?” and “we’re Manchester City, we’ll fight to the end” from the Shed End – they look equipped to take the title fight to the wire.
Victory over Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium next week will see them cut the gap to three points with a game in hand.
Chelsea had marginally the better of the first half whilst City were strangely timid and uncertain of themselves.
Cole Palmer lashed into the side-netting early on against his old team. Marc Cucurella had the ball in the net after 15 minutes, but was flagged offside then Pedro Neto drew a good low save from Gianluigi Donnarumma.
At the other end, City were made to wait until the 33rd minute of a quiet half for their first opportunity, Bernardo Silva’s first-time shot squeezing through Wesley Fofana’s attempted block and saved well by Robert Sanchez.
Rayan Cherki struck an effort straight into Sanchez’s arms then Antoine Semenyo dragged an effort wide from outside the box shortly afterwards.
City began the second half more brightly. Erling Haaland had his first sight of goal inside the first minute, but skewed his effort against Jorrel Hato after racing on to Doku’s pass.
It was a warning Chelsea failed to heed and they fell behind soon after. Cherki crossed from the right towards the six-yard box, Andrey Santos switched off and allowed O’Reilly to dart beyond him and head into the net.
The visitors now came on much stronger. Haaland was beaten to a header six yards out by Fofana, who got there just before the striker to flick behind.
From the resulting corner, Doku worked the ball to Cherki and he dashed infield before sliding a pass through to Guehi who slipped the ball into the far corner to double the lead.
City’s third was a horror show from Chelsea. Caicedo dawdled hopelessly in possession after receiving the ball from Sanchez then ran straight into Doku, who dispossessed him and clipped his finish inside the near post.
Cucurella tried gamely to salvage some home pride, first with a low drive which flashed wide then with a header that was well kept out by Donnarumma.