Chelsea 0-1 Manchester City
by Layth Yousif
at Stamford Bridge

IT WAS fitting on the weekend of a big prize-fight, swaggering Manchester City emerged triumphant in a battle of the heavyweights against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

Pep Guardiola’s side floored their opponents to win 1-0 after a 52nd-minute goal by Gabriel Jesus to gain revenge of sorts after losing the Champions League final to the same opponents last season.

While Gabriel’s strike appeared to take a deflection off Blues defender Jorginho, it was enough to KO Thomas Tuchel’s Blues in the Saturday lunchtime bout, as Guardiola became the most successful manager in the club’s history in terms of victories.

Chelsea started with an overly defensive 3-5-2 formation with Andreas Christensen at the heart of the backline trio. The world class N’Golo Kante started alongside Jorginho and Mateo Kovacic in what turned out to be a muted midfield, flanked by Reece James and Marcos Alonso.

Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner were up front, and, crucially, as the match progressed, increasingly cut adrift.

Guardiola’s effervescent City opted for 4-3-3, with Ruben Dias, last season’s  Football Writers’ Association Player of the Year — the first defender to win the award since Steve Nicol in 1989 — at the back, while Kevin De Bruyne started, with Phil Foden as a “false nine.”

The knee was taken by 21 of the 22 players starting the game, the exception being Chelsea’s Alonso, who stated beforehand he would make his own gesture, which didn’t appear to be much of a gesture at all, apart from appearing to reject taking the knee.  

Premier League champions City dominated the opening stages as their travelling support informed west London they were top dogs domestically last term.

Only to be met by a rendition of “Champions of Europe, you’ll never sing that” from home counterparts, in reference to the Blues’ 1-0 victory over their visitors to lift the coveted title in Porto last May, for the second time in nine years.

Quality was everywhere on the pitch, even if the first half was full of hustle and probing rather than incisive blows, with the main point of note being the ageless Thiago Silva replacing James just before the half-hour mark.

The England defender being spotted with a bandaged ankle after the match.

De Bruyne struck a long-range right-footed effort over Edouard Mendy, prior to Gabriel Jesus’s low jab that ended up in the same direction before the interval.

City started with the same intensity after the break, with £100 million man Jack Grealish attempting a right-footed curler two minutes after the break.

To Chelsea’s relief, his shot failed to make contact with the inside of Mendy’s net.

However, the goal that relentless City deserved eventually came seven minutes into the second half, through the lively Jesus, who unleashed a low shot through a crowded box to Mendy’s right, leaving the keeper wrong-footed and floundering in no-man’s land.

The 24-year-old former Palmeiras attacker’s thumb-sucking celebration revealing the fact, as he confirmed after the match, that the Brazilian is expecting his first child.

If there was a deflection off Jorginho, it made no difference to the joyous reaction from the visitors. The goal prompting wild celebrations on the City bench and behind the goal among the vociferous 3,000 travelling support — recognition that fans, players and management knew just how important the strike could be, come the end of this season, let alone the end of this particular contest.

Shortly afterwards Kante was replaced by Kai Havertz, the scorer of the goal to win the Champions League, as an increasingly agitated Tuchel opted to freshen things up.

Moments later, with the battle now at fever pitch, City’s Bernardo Silva failed to find the net, his shot cleared off the line by Thiago Silva.

Chelsea rightly had a goal by Lukaku disallowed, before De Bruyne fed Grealish who raced into the box, only for his tantalising outside-of-the-boot cross to be wasted.

The visitors seemingly interested in walking the ball into the net rather than being clinical.

Kovacic had a shot blocked on the edge of the area, as the match exploded into a heavyweight contest, with both sides matching blow for blow in an enthralling bout showcasing top quality football.

Yet Chelsea’s midfield never entirely seemed to add up to the sum of its parts, a fact acknowledged by an honest Tuchel afterwards, when he admitted: “We played with the mentality that we had something to lose. They were too strong, we were not good enough. They made us underperform and deserved to win.”

As the clock ticked down, there was still time for Mendy to block a close-range effort from the exuberant Grealish to make it 15 shots in total from the visitors, compared to Chelsea’s more modest five.

City flexed their muscle late on by displaying the strength in depth of their squad when bringing on Fernandinho for Foden.

At the same time, Grealish was swapped for Raheem Sterling. The former Villa man may have departed with a rueful smile as the Chelsea crowd howled opprobrium at him, but it was the smile of a winner.  

As referee Michael Oliver blew to end proceedings, the thought was that perhaps City do need a world-class striker to round off their team of many talents.

Equally, Chelsea lacked the industry and pressing of the missing Mason Mount, while the midfield, with and without Kante, failed to supply the isolated Lukaku with the ammunition required to land decisive blows.

Yet judging by the unbridled celebrations from the entire City squad at the final whistle, in communion with their fans — revealing harmony as much as joy — Guardiola’s team will once again be genuine contenders for the heavyweight title of England once again.

The fact they leapfrogged their rivals into top spot only added to the sense that this was a key victory.

No wonder a delighted Guardiola, who stemmed three defeats in a row at the hands of Chelsea, said afterwards: “The guys were outstanding. In this stadium, against this opponent, they made me so proud.”

Who needs Anthony Joshua when you have a pair of pugilists of the calibre on show at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.