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Chelsea 1-0 Manchester City: Thomas Tuchel's men prove they can challenge; Timo Werner delivers impact
Manchester City’s quadruple dream is dead after suffering defeat in Saturday’s FA Cup semi final to Chelsea, but Thomas Tuchel and his players can still end their season with a trophy.
On the whole, it was a deserved victory for the Blues who now have a date in May against either Leicester or Southampton.
Tuchel made a number of bold calls, including leaving Kai Havertz and the in-form Christian Pulisic on the bench, and they paid off.
City, on the other hand, were never able to break down the well-drilled Chelsea defence. From the contest, four major things stood out.
Werner was the biggest difference for Chelsea
Chelsea paid €50 million for a goalscorer last summer, with Timo Werner arriving at Stamford Bridge having scored 28 times in 34 Bundesliga appearances for RB Leipzig last season.
It has since become clear that the German international isn’t the true number nine many thought he was, but his Wembley display demonstrated why he is still one of Tuchel’s most important players.
Werner was the difference for Chelsea, breaking in behind the City defence to square for Hakim Ziyech to score the winner. This came from a very deliberate ploy by Tuchel - see the disallowed goal after six minutes which was almost identical to the winner.
Indeed, much of Chelsea’s attacking play was geared towards exposing the Premier League table-toppers in the full back areas (more on that later).
There are times when fielding a forward like Werner doesn’t make much sense, but the 25-year-old gives Chelsea another dimension in matches like this one. City were never able to truly suffocate the Londoners even as they sat deep in the final 20 minutes due to the threat of Werner running in behind.
This was crucial to the Chelsea game plan.
Chelsea could be City’s biggest challengers next season
There was enough in this performance from Chelsea to suggest they are building something special under Tuchel. Talk of a title challenge under Frank Lampard after £220 million worth of summer business proved to be wide of the mark, but the new man in the job is putting in place a system to harness all the talent now at Stamford Bridge.
Much has been made of Chelsea’s defensive solidity with Tuchel at the helm, and with good reason - they have kept 14 clean sheets in 19 games - but the way the German has got his midfield unit operating so effectively also warrants recognition. Jorginho and N’Golo Kante give Chelsea as good a basis as any of their rivals.
Manchester United have made progress this season, but questions remain over whether they can make the final step to become true contenders. Meanwhile, Liverpool have a number of problems to solve over the summer.
If there’s a team Guardiola and City are looking at as potential challengers next season, it’s likely Chelsea.
Tuchel not afraid to flex his tactical muscle
Since his arrival in English football five years ago, nobody has been able to match Guardiola in the tactical stakes. Not even Jurgen Klopp can claim to have the intricate understanding of the mechanisms of the game that the City boss has.
However, Tuchel might just be Guardiola’s equal on a chalkboard despite this being his first win in six attempts against the Catalan.
Chelsea enjoyed the better of the opening 20 minutes with Tuchel overloading Manchester City in the wide areas. He recognised that the Premier League leaders can often leave space in behind their full backs and so the likes of Ben Chilwell, Werner and Ziyech were instructed to get into these areas as often as possible. This is how the winning goal materialised.
City adopted a 4-2-3-1 formation without the ball which saw the attackers split into pairs when they had it. Chelsea were gradually pushed back over the course of the contest as Guardiola got to grips with the Tuchel game plan.
True to the sometimes overused cliche, this tight match was indeed a compelling tactical battle.
De Bruyne injury - City can cope without him
The sight of Kevin de Bruyne hobbling off with an ankle knock at the start of the second half certainly wasn’t what Guardiola, or any City fan, wanted to see. The Belgian midfielder has been in exceptional form of late having missed spells of the first half of the season through injury.
Those spells should give Manchester City some comfort if de Bruyne is sidelined for any great length of time. It was during this period that Guardiola experimented with using Phil Foden, Ilkay Gundogan and Bernardo Silva in more advanced positions, blurring the lines between midfield and attack. There were signs of this after de Bruyne was withdrawn.
In de Bruyne’s absence, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Guardiola revert back to the striker-less system that worked so well for City earlier in the season.
They will find things tougher without the Belgian, but there are enough options in the Etihad Stadium dressing room for them to cope.