Manchester City 1-0 Chelsea, Premier League: Post-match reaction, ratings

There were no surprises from either team in their lineups and setups, and the game itself didn’t play out in any surprising fashion either.

City controlled possession, mostly patient with the occasional long ball over the top for the likes of Grealish and De Bruyne and Sterling. But their best and only chance in the first-half came from a turnover from Kovačić at the top of the box. Kepa made a tremendous save on Grealish fortunately.

Chelsea were looking for counters, and certainly had plenty of opportunities if not quite the quality to make them count. Multiple openings for Lukaku were either ignored or made a royal mess of, and the decision-making from the team left Tuchel visibly frustrated multiple times.

Both teams had chances at the start of the second half, with Ederson making a good save on Lukaku, and City wasting a few promising opportunities.

The tactical tussle continued, and just when it looked like we might be able to get something out of the game, De Bruyne popped up to win it with a long shot, just like he did in 2017-18 at the Bridge.

Chelsea tried to mount a response, but it wasn’t really happening. And when it did, our final ball was greatly lacking.

Carefree.

• Plenty of changes from the last three cup games, but only four changes from the match against Liverpool, two enforced (Kepa for Mendy, Sarr for Chalobah) and two tactical (Ziyech for Mount, Lukaku for Havertz).
• Werner and Hudson-Odoi on for the final 20 to inject some pace
• Mount on for the final 10, with Chelsea switching to a back-four
• Chelsea lose for just the second time in 25 games. City win their 12th league match in a row, opening up a 13-point lead on us. Our fight is for the top four and trophies in other competitions.
• Next up: Brighton away on Tuesday
• KTBFFH

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