Manchester City's Win over Chelsea Suggests Improved Season Lies Ahead
Given the lethargy that hindered Manchester City during the 2014/15 season, signs of immediate improvement were needed at the beginning of this new campaign to appease their supporters and show the football world they are back to their best and ready to compete for silverware.
Their six straight wins at the close of the previous Premier League season saw them finish comfortably in second place and sent them into the summer on something of a high, but overall, it was a difficult year for City and their manager, Manuel Pellegrini.
Two games are nowhere near enough to assess City’s trophy-winning credentials, but they certainly are enough to suggest the inertia and lack of tempo that stopped City from ever hitting their best form the last time out have been blown away. Two 3-0 wins—over West Bromwich Albion last Monday and against Chelsea on Sunday—were both delivered in style, with quick passing and pace on the break being central to both results. It’s exactly what City were lacking.
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Their switch from 4-4-2 to 4-2-3-1 may be a subtle alteration, but it suits their best players—most notably David Silva, who operates in the hole behind Sergio Aguero and is free to roam, and Yaya Toure, who faces less pressure to play his energy-sapping box-to-box role when playing in a five-man midfield.
City have looked slicker, sharper and fresher in the opening two matches of this season than they were at any stage of 2014/15.
The way they dismantled Chelsea, last season's league and cup winners, was startling. Fernandinho rightly took many of the plaudits for his infectious performance full of drive and energy, but he was surrounded by others who showed character, desire to win and, perhaps most importantly, quality in possession.
“Fernandinho has started this season as the player we bought two seasons ago,” Pellegrini said after the match. He’s right. The Brazilian’s fitness levels were staggering in his first season at the club and brought a new edge to City, but after a draining World Cup in Brazil that summer, he suffered upon his return to Manchester.
"Pellegrini: "We deserved at least 3 or 4 goals. Fernandinho has started this season as the player we bought 2 years ago" #mcfc #cfc
— Kelly O'Donnell_MCFC (@Kelly_O_Donnell) August 16, 2015"
It was a big loss for the Blues, but on the evidence of his display against Chelsea, when he scored the third goal with a wonderful first-time strike, he looks refreshed and ready to prove his doubters wrong.
Pellegrini opted to start with Aguero, despite concerns over his fitness levels after his Copa America involvement with Argentina. He’s too good to leave out of such an important game. He opened the scoring with a wonderfully taken goal—the kind only he could score—with his balance, poise, close control and goalscoring instincts all in evidence.
It was Pellegrini’s first league victory over Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho since taking the City job in the summer of 2013, and he deserved it. Mourinho’s claim that it was a “fake result” after the match fell on universal deaf ears. It was clear for all to see that City were the better side throughout the game—quicker to the ball and more inventive when they had it.
Silva has looked imperious so far, as has Toure. Vincent Kompany now has two goals in two games, which will provide him with a much-needed confidence boost after a miserable season the last time out. Eliaquim Mangala appears to be more settled.
City look fired up and raring to go.
""It sent out the right signal but there is so much more to come.” @VincentKompany reacts: http://t.co/y24qEsTZrU pic.twitter.com/Sfxi1DITdD
— Manchester City FC (@MCFC) August 16, 2015"
Where City now need to show improvement is with their consistency. Chelsea won the league last season, not by being overwhelmingly the best side in the division but by being the most consistent. They beat the lesser sides with the kind of regularity City couldn't match and thoroughly deserved their title.
Pellegrini's men dropped nine points to the three relegated sides (Hull City, Burnley and Queens Park Rangers). It likely didn't take the Chilean and his backroom staff long to identify their major problem when their postmortem took place in May.
City need to be at their best more often.
Two games in, and City find themselves five points ahead of Chelsea, the pre-season favourites for the title. It's too early for Pellegrini and his squad to get excited, but what their opening two games of the new season have shown is that they look slicker than they did last season.
The pace and verve they showed when winning the Premier League and Capital One Cup in 2013/14 are returning—a welcome sight for those who packed inside the newly revamped Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
Rob Pollard is Bleacher Report's lead Manchester City correspondent and follows the club from a Manchester base. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Follow him on Twitter: @RobPollard.
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