Manchester City Lose Cool as Worrying Home Form Continues in Chelsea Defeat
It may be early December, but Manchester City’s title-challenge is being tested to the full.
Having led at half time against a strong Chelsea side, Pep Guardiola’s team lost their heads and finished a tense encounter with nine men—having blown their top after falling 3-1 behind to an impressive comeback from Antio Conte’s side. It was an opportunity to stamp their authority on the Premier League, but it was missed badly.
The game descended into a farcical ending. City’s players, wound up by having lost control of a match they should have had in the bag after an hour, found themselves scrapping with their opponents on the pitch. Chelsea were perfectly happy to let them—and the prospect of a three-match ban for Fernandinho and a four-match suspension for Sergio Aguero now looms for City.
It was sparked by a horror-tackle from the Argentinian. Eden Hazard had netted in the closing stages to confirm the win and the ball broke for Aguero on the left flank. Faced one-on-one with Luiz, he overran it and lunged straight for the Chelsea defender. It wasn’t pretty and, as the referee brandished the red card, Aguero had no complaints.
Guardiola, however, stunned the press conference afterwards by claiming it wasn’t intentional when asked by reporters: “I don’t think so. Maybe I have to understand many things here about the referees.”
What followed the incident was a display of ill-discipline. In among a near 22-man brawl, Cesc Fabregas gave Fernandinho a tiny pat to the cheek—and that lit the touch-paper that resulted in the Brazilian’s dismissal. He too couldn’t complain, having twice grabbed the Spaniard around the throat and pushed him towards the advertising boards.
Petulance from City was the order of the day long before that. On the touchline, Guardiola hadn’t been happy with referee Anthony Taylor—and there was clearly a lot of ammunition for him to have fired at the official afterwards, but he chose only to pass comment indirectly. The manager had resorted to sarcastically fist-pumping and cheering when a decision went in his favour late on.
Before that, City had been denied a penalty when N’Golo Kante appeared to chop down Ilkay Gundogan inside the box. When Jesus Navas went over Gary Cahill’s outstretched leg, the home fans appealed for a spot-kick again—but nothing doing.
Taylor had already incurred the wrath of the crowd when Aguero was body-checked by David Luiz when clean through on goal—the official put his whistle to his mouth, his hand on his red card but then changed his mind when his linesman chose not to flag.
City’s players were so incensed by the decision that they almost conceded at the other end, as so many of them remonstrated with the referee.
There were many other factors in the loss, though. After the match, Guardiola refused to point the finger anywhere other than his own team: “We didn’t win because we missed a lot of chances, not for the referee,” he told reporters. “I need time to understand the decisions and many things, but we didn’t win not for the referee but because we miss a lot of chances. That’s all.”
The Catalan had a point. Having gone 1-0 up late in the first half thanks to a Gary Cahill own goal, City should have added to their lead long before the visitors equalised.
Kevin De Bruyne was the guiltiest of all. Having failed to convert when Leroy Sane impressively broke through the Chelsea lines and picked him out inside the box, the Belgian squandered a chance from an open goal. The first miss could be put down to a decent save from Thibaut Courtois, but the second was all on the midfielder—Navas drove a low ball across the box from a dynamic City break and De Bruyne, stretching, could only smash it into the bar from four yards out.
Courtois and the defence were beaten and it would have put City in total control. Instead, it proved to be the turning point. Three minutes later, Chelsea were level.
On the touchline, Guardiola was going ballistic. He wanted a handball in the build-up to Diego Costa’s finish, but replays showed the striker took Cesc Fabregas’ excellent pass down perfectly legitimately. Underneath it, Nicolas Otamendi was all at sea.
If anything, that short spell highlighted one of City’s biggest problems of the season so far. Two clean sheets in the Premier League in 14 matches tells the story defensively, as again the home side couldn’t finish off the chances they were creating and couldn’t keep their opponents out at the other end.
The same happened again on 70 minutes. Seconds after City should have gone back in front, they fell behind—a stunning break led by Willian found the home side wanting. Claudio Bravo didn’t cover himself in glory staying rooted to his line for the finish, while Otamendi was once more guilty of diving in too high up the pitch and not winning the ball.
All of that would have been immaterial had the home side finished another gilt-edged chance. Gundogan skipped three or four challenges and drove into the box, where he tried to pull the ball back to a team-mate in the middle. He didn’t manage to find Aguero or De Bruyne for an open goal and Chelsea went on to score on the break.
Guardiola rolled the dice, throwing on Yaya Toure and Kelechi Iheanacho from the bench, removing the lively Gundogan and John Stones, but it made little difference. His side couldn’t test Courtois again, before the visitors made sure of the win in the final moments.
“It’s a pity what happened in the end of the situation,” the City boss said of the scenes that followed. “Fernandinho went there to defend because the opponent went like this [Guardiola makes a two-handed pushing gesture] to his team-mates.”
While the Catalan might have lambasted the hot-headedness in the dressing room in private, he could hardly criticise his team publicly for losing their cool when he himself had been gesturing sarcastically towards the referee.
City are not out of this title race yet, but their worrying form against the better teams continues. If they’re not able to beat the sides around them, especially at the Etihad, then they won’t be top of the table at the end of May. It might have been a promising display for an hour against an in-form Chelsea side on Saturday lunchtime, but it was the Stamford Bridge side who put daylight between the two teams at the Premier League’s summit.
Does Guardiola have the squad he needs to put into practise his ideas? City’s failed chases for the likes of Leonardo Bonucci and Aymeric Laporte could have had more impact than many suspected at the time, as again the Catalan's side looked unconvincing at the back.
Perhaps another striker, in the mould of a forward like Borussia Dortmund’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang—who the club also wanted, but missed out on in the summer—might have added potency to an attack that’s not scoring enough goals.
Guardiola’s regularly said that his team has problems “in both boxes.” It’s a sentiment that sums up the defeat to Chelsea and left the home fans leaving the Etihad feeling like it was the same old story.
All quotes were gathered first hand, unless otherwise stated.
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