When they come to write the eulogy for this season’s Premier League, they’ll speak about this match at Stamford Bridge. It wasn’t much a turning point or major event as it was the whole season encapsulated in one 90-minute tale.
At the start of the season, each of the top clubs had a superstar manager in charge, but it’s the most streetwise whose team sits at the top of the pile this morning, and who will more than likely stay there until after the final game in May.
Manchester City turned up at the Bridge looking to blow the doors to the title race open. Their upwards of 60% possession and seven extra shots tell you that they were the more attacking team for most of the game, but it was Chelsea’s know-how that saw them through, and will surely see them through until the end of the season, too.
A goal with their first real attack of the game gave the home side the upper hand, courtesy of an Eden Hazard shot, deflected off Vincent Kompany, which evaded Willy Caballero in the City goal. City’s keeper should perhaps have done better, as another familiar trope of this Premier League season emerged at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea attempted to retreat into their shell after that, but yet another goalkeeping error, this time from Thibaut Courtois trying to play out from the back, let David Silva in on goal, and Manchester City back in the game. The Spaniard’s shot was saved by the Belgian keeper, but the rebound fell kindly to Sergio Aguero, who slotted into an empty net.
If Chelsea’s plan was to sit back and pick City off on the break after Hazard’s opening goal, the equaliser didn’t change too much. Pep Guardiola’s side looked buoyed by their luck and started to find spaces in the midfield, overwhelming N’Golo Kante at times with four players, three central midfielders, and a roaming Kevin de Bruyne hardwired to find space.
Their best chance of the remainder of the first half fell to Leroy Sane. David Silva found one of those spaces, and sent the German through in behind Kurt Zouma with an inch-perfect ball, but Sane’s dinked effort was denied by the onrushing Courtois.
Of all the sides in the division, it’s Antonio Conte’s who have the perfect balance. Their 3-4-3 formation provides enough width from wing-back to allow Pedro and Eden Hazard to roam from outside to in, playing as inside forwards rather than wingers. And it was precisely one of those runs from Pedro, from the left channel and into the box, which was expertly found by Cesc Fabregas ten minutes before half time. The forward’s quick feet drew a foul from Fernandinho, and referee Mike Dean gave perhaps the least controversial penalty of the season. Eden Hazard’s spot kick was saved by Caballero, but he succeeded only in pushing the ball straight back to the taker, who finished the rebound.
The second half was a similar story with a different feel. Nemanja Matic’s arrival at half time allowed Chelsea to do what they couldn’t do after their first goal: they retreated into a frighteningly low block, sitting deep enough to nullify Sane’s pace and City’s ability to play through the spaces between Chelsea’s defenders. The result was an attack vs defence scenario for most of the second half, but with the gaps around Kante now plugged, City struggled to break their opponents down.
City’s build-up play centred around their left side, attempting to exploit the fact that Pedro had moved to a right wing-back position, but their neat passes seemed almost claustrophobic in the second period.
The romanticism of City’s attacking play was stifled by Chelsea’s realism and defensive solidity, and Pep Guardiola’s old problems of sorting out his defence remain. With Vincent Kompany coming through 90 minutes seemingly unscathed, though, that will be cause for optimism around the Etihad for the next few days. But it will take more than the returning captain to sort it out.
At the Bridge, Chelsea showed the streetwise edge that will become the narrative for this season: Conte’s tactics, N’Golo Kante’s destructive ability, and Eden Hazard’s flashes of brilliance were all on display against a team whose attacking beauty belied their defensive toothlessness.
City are getting better and will be a threat again next year, but Chelsea are the poster boys for the pragmatic realism that will win out this season.
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