Chelsea suffered a turbulent 3-1 defeat to Manchester City at the Etihad in the Premier League.
It was the perfect start for Enzo Maresca’s side after they took the lead in the first 3rd minute of the match. A weak attempt at a header from the Citizens’ new signing, Abdukodir Khusanov, gave Nicolas Jackson a chance to score in the six-yard box. The Senegalese striker selflessly chose to set up Noni Madueke, who tapped it into the empty net.
After a strong opening ten minutes, Chelsea once again relinquished pressure to allow Manchester City to make up for their mistakes. City piled on the pressure and continued to ask questions of the Blues worryingly high line until they eventually found a breakthrough just before halftime in the 42nd minute.
Matheus Nunes’ diagonal run in behind a sleeping Chelsea defence was found with a long ball by Ilkay Gundogan. Nunes held off Marc Cucurella long enough to get a shot away at Robert Sanchez, which ricocheted off the keeper into the path of Josko Gvardiol who scored from the empty net.
A long ball from Ederson evaded the Blues defence but found Erling Haaland. The Norwegian forward won the battle against Trevoh Chalobah and only had Sanchez to beat. Sanchez however had completely lost his bearings and was caught in no-man's land after rushing out in an attempt to sweep away Ederson’s long pass. Haaland spotted the goalkeeper out of position and lobbed the ball over the Spaniard into the goal in the 68th minute.
Phil Foden nailed the coffin for Maresca’s side scoring Man City’s third in the 87th minute. Another long ball caused Chelsea problems, with a headed flick-on from former Chelsea player, Kevin De Bruyne, falling to the feet of Haaland. The striker wrestled off Levi Colwill and set off Foden who made no mistake in a one-on-one against Sanchez, slotting it in the bottom left corner.
A disappointing performance in a match in which Chelsea had the chances and opportunities to win but the same issues that have haunted the Blues in the past month have continued to hurt Chelsea.
Few positives for Chelsea to take from this game with the attack and defence letting down the team. The front four were toothless and the changes made by Maresca arguably made any threat turn entirely passive. Jackson’s performance once again was frustrating but as soon as he was taken off for Christopher Nkunku, the attack became lifeless as there was no physical presence to challenge and press City’s defenders like Jackson does.
The high backline proved to be self-sabotage. They held it fairly well for the first half hour and caused some frustration to the opposition. However, after the equaliser the gaps in the defence appeared more frequently, causing Chelsea more problems.
Chelsea’s loss to Manchester City allowed the Citizens to leap from the Blues into fourth place. Maresca’s team has dropped to sixth place, level on points with Bournemouth who have been unstoppable recently.
Maresca’s first couple months as head coach have been some of the best football Chelsea fans have seen since the change in ownership. However, these recent results and performances are not good enough considering the quality of this squad and the amount of money spent on it.
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