Pulisic and Willian score the goals that downs Man City 2-1 at the Bridge putting the Londoners five

Chelsea 2 v Man City 1

Christian Pulisic produced a wonderful individual goal to set Chelsea on their way to three vital points against Manchester City - the Blues won 2-1 after Kevin de Bruyne’s free kick equaliser was overshadowed by Willian’s penalty strike which saw City reduced to 10-men when Fernandinho handled the ball in the area.

US wide man Pulisic took advantage of a defensive mix-up and ran the length of the City half before cooly slotting the ball past Ederson.

That defeat for City meant that Liverpool became Premier League champions without kicking a ball, while Chelsea remain in fourth but are now just a point behind third placed Leicester City.

City settled the quickest, their possession play typical of the visitors, while the Blues were content to sit back, and maintain their shape and look to counter-attack quickly.

That attack came on 13 minutes but Willian’s byline cross - seemingly heading for in-running Mason Mount but was intercepted by Ilkay Gundogan.

Kepa, who minutes earlier almost gifted City a goal with a misplaced piece of footwork, produced a fine save, tipping over Fernandinho’s glancing header on 18 minutes.

Another quick break by the home aside saw Ross Barkley, free in the City penalty are, but his goal-bound left-footer was deflected away for a corner on 27 minutes.

Chelsea produced a brilliant couple of minutes when Barkley, and Mount missed gilt-edged chances. That was followed on 33 minutes by City goalkeeper Ederson producing a sublime reflex save from Andreas Christensen’s bullet header from close range.

Chelsea took full advantage of a mix-up by Gundogan and Benjamin Mendy which saw Christian Pulisic latch onto the loose ball in his own half. He raced the length of the City half, before opening his body to curl an exquisite right-footer around Ederson and plot the ball in the fr left hand corner of the goalkeeper’s net to put the Blues 1-0 up 10 minutes before the break.

There were no changes by either side at half-time.

But the game started the same as the first with City dominant.

The only difference was that ex-Chelsea midfielder Kevin De Bruyne produced a wonderful free-kick from 20 yards that dipped over the wall and smashed into the back of Kepa’s net to level the score.

Raheem Sterling should have put the visitors ahead but his clipped effort rebounded off Kepa’s right post two minutes later.

Lampard opted to replace hard-working Giroud with Tammy Abraham’s.

How Pulisic failed to score on 70 minutes is anybodies business as he cut through the City defence. He rounded Ederson and clipped the ball goal-bound. Incredibly Kyle Walker managed to wrap his left boot around the ball on the line and clear it.

Barkley was replaced by Mateo Kovacic with 17 minutes left.

A minute late Chelsea counter-attacked and afternoon Willian had a shot, Ederson saved the follow-up from Abraham but Fernandinho handled the ball on the line.

after VAR intervened Fernandinho was red-carded and a penalty was awarded.

Up stepped Willian to take the spot kick and the Brazil wide man smashed the ball high and wide past Ederson to restore the lead for the west Londoners.

Pedro and Billy Gilmour came on in the final couple of minutes - off came Mount and Pulisic and the Blues comfortably ran down the clock.

Teams:

Chelsea: Arrizabalaga, Azpilicueta, Rudiger, Christensen, Alonso, Barkley, Kante, Mount, Willian, Giroud, Pulisic

Subs: Caballero, Jorginho, Abraham, Pedro, Loftus-Cheek, Zouma, Kovacic , James, Gilmour

Man City: Ederson, Walker, Fernandinho, Laporte, Mendy, Gundogan, Rodi, De Bruyne, Mahrez, Sterling, B Silva

Subs: Jesus, Zinchenko, Sane, D Silva, Otamendi, Carson, Doyle, Harwood-Bellis, Palmer

Referee: Stuart Attwell