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One nil up, lost 3-1 to confidence-stricken Man City, Chelsea crash out of Champions League position to sixth

By Paul Lagan at Etihad Stadium
Etihad Stadium Picture by Capital Football
Etihad Stadium Picture by Capital Football

By Paul Lagan at Etihad Stadium


Man City 3 v Chelsea 1


Chelsea had a great chance to put distance between themselves and champions Manchester City, instead they crashed to a humbling 3-1 defeat and drop out of the Champions League places.

City who themselves are almost devoid of confidence gifted the west Londoners a goal on two minutes – Noni Madueke tapping home.

They could have gone 2-0 up before City had even got into gear, but failed to take advantage.

That was their mistake, City simply kept going, kept pressing, and finally they went route one and it brought dividends with the last two goals a simple case of bypassing the pitch and hope Erling Haaland will do what he does best. He did.

Chelsea are now sixth in the Premier League with the image of challenging for the title now in the dim, distant past.

Chelsea took the lead on two minutes when a horror back pass header by Abdukodir inside his penalty area allowed Nicolas Jackson to snatch the ball, poke it to his right to in-running Noni, who tapped into the empty net.

Khusanov was then yellow-carded for hacking down Cole Palmer.

Palmer race clear on nine minutes with just Ederson to beat. Yet inexplicably he passed left to Jackson who fluffed his line, before passing to Jadon Sancho, who saw his shot blocked.

That stirred City I to action, and on 10 minutes Phil Foden was unlucky when his left-footed blaster smashed off Robert Sanchez's right post and to safety.

Iikay Gundogan missed a great chance on 24 minutes, smashing the ball over the Chelsea goal from close range.

City had the ball in the back of the net on 34 minutes after Sanchez's spilled a shot. Omar Marmoush struck first sliding the ball home, but the linesman adjudged him offside ans VAR quickly agreed.

Josko Gvardiol showed Reece James a clean pair of heels on 41 minutes, but his clipped shot inched wide of Sanchez's left post.

But seconds later City took full advantage of a static Chelsea back four to put pressure on them and with right winger Noni bizarrely playing City onside when otherwise Gvardiol would again have been offside.

But they pressed and the ball fell invitingly to him and he tucked home to level the score on 42 minutes.

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

Some excellent end-to-end play by both sides lifted the crowd, but no goals to see.

Maresca's first change came when he replaced ineffectual Jackson for Christopher Nkunku on 60 minutes.

When in doubt, kick it long. Twice the ball was thumped up to Erling Haaland, the first time reaped no dividends The second saw him go up against Trevoh Chalobah.

But this time, Sanchez opted to race out to try and get the ball.

It was a catastrophic error of judgement, and Haaland was favourite to grab the ball. He turned Chalobah, who also slipped, leaving the striker with the simple option from the right apex of the area, to curl the ball, with his left foot over Sanchez standing in non-man's land, and into the back of the net.

James day ended with Malo Gusto replacing him, on 72 minutes, and Pedro Neto took, Sancho's berth on the left.

The old long ball worked again two minutes from time, again Haaland was the focus. He slotted the b all into Foden's feet and the attacking midfielder did what Palmer did not and attack the goalkeeper. He coolly slotted that ball home to make it 3-1 and three points.


Teams: Chelsea: Sanchez, Cucurella, Colwill, Enzo, Noni, Jackson, Sancho, Palmer, Chalobah, James, Caicedo

Subs: Jorgensen, Disasi, Tosin, Neto, Nkunku, Dewsbury-Hall, Gusto, Acheampong, Guiu

Man City: Ederson, Marmoush, Kovacic, Haaland, Gundogan, Silva, Gvardiol, Akanji, Nunes, Khusanov, Foden

Subs: Ortega, Stones, Grealish, De Bruyne, Reis, Savinho, O'Reilly, Lewis, McAtee

Referee:



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