Chelsea 0 Manchester City 3: match reportThree second half goals secure huge victory as City capitalise on Arsenal defeat
Manchester City defeated Chelsea 3-0 away at Stamford Bridge to move within six points of Arsenal with a game in hand. It was also the Blues first premier league game in nearly a month, with the last one being the 1-1 draw away at West Ham before City’s consecutive cup victories over Arsenal and Liverpool. Donnarumma started in goal. Nunes, Khusanov, Dias, and O’Reilly were in defence. Rodri, Bernardo, and Cherki were in midfield with Doku, Semenyo, and Haaland in attack.
City had a slow start to the game and struggled to make many chances for the majority of the first half. It was in fact, Chelsea at this point who were having the better of the chances. The home side did have the ball in the back of the net through Cucurella who fired past Donnarumma and thought he had given Chelsea in the lead only for the goal not to stand as he was played offside by Khusanov. A let off for the Blues who needed a response.
Ultimately, City could not make the breakthrough in the first half and Chelsea were the teams who probably will have felt more encouraged at half-time.
Regardless, City came out in the second half with a completely different performance and within five minutes they had the lead. Cherki who up to that point was having a tough came spotted O’Reilly unmarked in the box and whipped a cross in that landed perfectly on the City fullbacks head and into the net to give City the lead.
Following the first goal it was mostly one way traffic and City now had full control of the game. Just a few moments later, they had their second. A short corner played from Doku to Cherki resulted in the Frenchman executing another excellent pass, this time to Guehi who received the ball in the box and tucked into the left corner of the goal to make it 2-0, extending City’s lead and control of the game.
O’Reilly, who was having an incredible game, went down with an injury in the 63rd minute and could not continue. Ait Nouri replaced him. Shortly after, City had a third, this time capitalising on a Chelsea mistake. Caicedo after receiving a pass from Sanchez was dispossessed by Doku who then ran straight at the goal and fired the ball in with ease to seal the job for the Blues.
Chelsea did not have many chances for even just one goal in this second half. Their closest chance came when a free kick was given at very close range but the resulting effort from Palmer was straight at Donnarumma. City saw the game out with ease and kept a clean sheet. The final score being 3-0
City’s next game will be against Arsenal next week at home in what could turn out to be a season-defining fixture. Three points next week and maybe, just maybe they can think about potentially regaining the title but at the moment, it may still seem far fetched despite Arsenal’s flaws.
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