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Manchester City 1-2 Chelsea: Thomas Tuchel's side show that they can challenge City
Saturday’s encounter between Manchester City and Chelsea was a dress rehearsal.
These two teams will face each other in the Champions League final later this month, whether that’s in Istanbul, at Villa Park or somewhere else, but this wasn’t the only thing being previewed at the Etihad Stadium.
Indeed, this may have been a hint of next season’s Premier League title race. It’s impossible to avoid the developing rivalry between City and Chelsea, and Pep Guardiola and Thomas Tuchel. The Blues have won the last two meetings between the sides, first in the FA Cup semi final and now here. Bettering City over the course of a title race will be an entirely different challenge, though.
Who will win the Champions League?
Odds via Sky Bet
- Manchester City - 4/9
- Chelsea - 13/8
There are signs Tuchel is comfortable in taking Guardiola on at his own game. Chelsea had the greater share of possession on Sunday - only just at 50.8% but that is still significant for a team challenging the champions-elect. While Manchester City mustered more total shots, the visitors did more to test Ederson with five shots on target to the home side’s four.
City are as close to flawless as any other team in European football right now, but they frequently struggle to contain counter-attacking opponents. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Manchester United have shown this, as did Leeds last month, and Tuchel’s Chelsea have only added to this sense with this victory.
Tuchel’s Chelsea are more multidimensional than Solskjaer’s United, though. They have players who can control games - see Billy Gilmour, who made 71 total passes against City with a success rate of 93%, and Jorginho. They can defend, as demonstrated by Cesar Azpilicueta who made five tackles, two interceptions, three aerial challenges and three clearances while only committing one foul.
Chelsea have a defensive distributor in Antonio Rudiger who completed six long passes out from the back against City. They even have a two-way central midfielder in N’Golo Kante, who for all his well-documented capacity as a protective barrier burst through the opposition midfield to create space more than once at the Etihad Stadium. The bones of Tuchel’s side are solid.
The ploy from Chelsea in the second half was clear, with Tuchel instructing his side to exploit the space in the wide areas, particularly down the right side where Reece James gave Benjamin Mendy a match to forget. Marcos Alonso and James made more crosses (three each) than anyone else for the visitors.
Guardiola’s decision to play a back three presented Chelsea with the chance to force their wide forwards into the awkward no man’s land between the left and right-sided centre backs and the wing backs. Timo Werner was more than happy to stretch his legs here and on another day he would have scored a couple, although this seems to be a rather common story for the German.
Despite a run of recent defeats at home, beating City on their own patch still requires an element of good fortune and that was evident here in how the hosts spurned a penalty kick that would have put them 2-0 up and were denied a late penalty kick. City’s wastefulness, and Chelsea’s ruthlessness, was also illustrated in the Expected Goals - City’s 1.81 to Chelsea’s 0.73.
This went against the widespread belief that Tuchel’s Chelsea need to be more clinical in front of goal. Wednesday’s Champions League semi final second leg saw the Blues require four good chances to score one with the tie only settled late on. An earlier goal would have spared Chelsea a whole lot of nerves.
😯 Manchester City have enjoyed the superior season but Chelsea have now won two of their three meetings against them.
— Sporting Life Football (@SportingLifeFC) May 8, 2021
🤔 Who are you backing to win the Champions League final now?#MCFC #CFC
However, the performance against Manchester City just a few days later showed a different side to Chelsea, who scored two from five shots on target. They also had two goals disallowed for marginal offsides - there was nothing wrong with the finishes. If these are the first signs of the Blues sharpening their edge in the final third, the rest of the Premier League should be wary.
Some teams have an inferiority complex in the big games, but Chelsea appear to have the opposite under Tuchel having won Champions League and FA Cup semi finals. Denying the Premier League champions-elect their coronation from being 1-0 down away from home underlines this.
Next season, it might be more than just a coronation that Chelsea deny City.
Odds correct at 0735 BST (10/05/21)
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