Man City 2-1

Telegraph:

Chelsea 2 Man City 1: Eden Hazard double takes Chelsea a step closer to league title

Jason Burt

So long did Roman Abramovich covet Pep Guardiola. And yet it was Antonio Conte’s name that rang around Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night as the Chelsea manager completed a remarkable Premier League double over Guardiola and took another significant step towards the league title in his first season in English football.

It is Guardiola’s first campaign, also, at Manchester City and this is the first time he has lost two league games in the same season to a rival – and the first time he has lost six league matches in one season as a manager. Ever. A campaign so imbued with heady promise has turned into a sober contest to retain a position in the top four.

There is an FA Cup semi-final to come and maybe a Cup win will sugar-coat it although Arsenal and then either Chelsea or Tottenham Hotspur stand in their way. Spurs also – just – still stand in Chelsea’s way with their extraordinary late rally away to Swansea City ensuring that this was just a night when Chelsea ended City’s already slim hopes of winning the title and not an evening when it was completely settled.

Spurs will not admit it but, in truth, they probably needed City to win this to prey on Chelsea nerves after the leaders’ surprise home defeat by Crystal Palace. Instead Chelsea dug in. Conte demanded it. Their lead remains at seven points with eight matches to go. It is not over, not yet, but it felt like a defining match. A title-winning step; a title-winning performance.

That both Chelsea goals – all three goals in fact – were the products of blunders said a lot about the unevenness of this season while City were summed up by the fact that they dominated possession, they wove pretty patterns through the outstanding David Silva but they proved essentially, perennially vulnerable. Guardiola should be lauded for being, as he said, “proactive not reactive” but, boy, does he need to work on City’s reactive side of the game.

It was kind of all caught in the final chance when the ball fell to John Stones from a corner, inside the Chelsea penalty area, but he volleyed wastefully over. City are close to being very good. But not close enough. Not yet anyway.

Chelsea are. Conte is wringing every last ounce out of his team. This was far from being their best display of the season but there was a sense, with a defence marshalled uncompromisingly by David Luiz, that they were always going to be able to do enough to get over the line against City even if the tension was palpable.

And so it proved with the nature of Chelsea’s opening goal summing up Chelsea’s ruthless edge and City’s soft centre. Conte set his side to pounce. They were happy to cede possession and hit hard and did that, spreading the ball wide with César Azpilicueta – pushed forward in the first half as a wing-back in the absence of the injured Victor Moses – finding Eden Hazard who struck a first-time shot that brushed against Vincent Kompany.

Goalkeeper Willy Caballero was wrong-footed but, still, the ball was not taken far enough away for him not to save and his effort was weak as he got a hand to it but was beaten. Should Kompany have got more on it? Caballero certainly should.

Kompany was a surprise inclusion, making his first start in the league since November, as was Fabian Delph in midfield, making his first league start of the season in fact, as Guardiola rang the changes and attempted – maybe – to provide a bit more power to his team.

Essentially it did not work despite the manager lauding both players afterwards. But City were not alone in making mistakes. They were gifted an equaliser which came as Thibaut Courtois inexplicably chipped the ball straight to Silva who ran into the area, shot, with the goalkeeper parrying and Sergio Agüero pouncing ahead of N’Golo Kanté to side-foot home. So two of the best attacking teams had scored through two goalkeeping howlers.

City suddenly felt re-energised and broke again with Silva slipping the ball through to Leroy Sané who attempted to lift it over the onrushing Courtois, who managed to block with an outstretched leg. Maybe it was redemption for the goalkeeper, maybe it was pivotal because the next action proved decisive as Pedro cut back across Fernandinho inside the City area and the midfielder clumsily brought him down. The penalty was awarded and although Caballero also came close to redemption, making a fine low save to his left from Hazard’s spot kick, the rebound fell back to the Belgian who swept it into the net.

If a pattern was set in the first half then it became even more heavily defined in the second partly because Conte had seen enough, taking off Kurt Zouma, bringing on Nemanja Matic and reorganising. It had been too end to end, too open and loose and he closed it down. City monopolised the ball, Silva kept recycling possession, and he pushed and probed trying to engineer a breakthrough.

Fernandinho volleyed wildly over but it was not until injury time that two clear chances came. The second was wasted by Stones and that corner came after Agüero reached substitute Nolito’s floated pass only for Courtois bravely to turn his volley behind. Chelsea march on; Spurs hold on. City are out.

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Guardian:

Eden Hazard outwits Manchester City to strengthen Chelsea’s title grip

Chelsea 2 - 1 Man City

Dominic Fifield at Stamford Bridge

It was Antonio Conte, as much as a nervous Chelsea support, who best betrayed the sense of anxiety which gripped here. The Italian spent most of the second half a frenzy of livid agitation on the edge of his technical area, frantically waving to his players and barking instructions or imploring the beleaguered fourth official, Bobby Madley, to offer plausible explanations for every tight decision. He is emotional at the best of times on the touchline, of course, but all his mannerisms were particularly exaggerated as time ebbed agonisingly from this contest.

He had stared in disbelief as John Stones went unnoticed just inside the six-yard box as Manchester City’s last corner of the contest veered into the penalty area, then puffed out his cheeks in relief as the centre-half’s awkward volley from in front of goal flew harmlessly over the bar. His own cheers were drowned amid the din at the final whistle seconds later. This victory squeezed the last breath of life from City’s vague challenge but, critically for Chelsea, also kept Tottenham Hotspur an arm’s length away. Spurs could mount their late rally in distant south Wales, but the seven-point lead is maintained. Everything about this win felt significant.

It was the kind that is secured by champions, not because the home side were at their scintillating best, despite Eden Hazard’s best efforts in establishing their lead before the interval. Rather, it was in the refusal to permit City an equaliser where Chelsea demonstrated their strength. This defence has been punctured too often of late, not least by lowly Crystal Palace at the weekend. Sergio Agüero’s equaliser here, converted into a gaping net after Thibaut Courtois had inexplicably cleared straight to David Silva, had ensured the leaders are still without a top-flight clean sheet since January. Yet they had still recovered their poise to edge back ahead, and then succeeded in containing the visitors’ late attempts to force parity.

City, as Pep Guardiola was keen to point out post-match, had enjoyed a fine 10-minute spell early on and had been by far the more authoritative of the two teams after the interval. The first six minutes of the second period had seen Fernandinho, on the turn, skying a volley over the bar and Vincent Kompany, on his first league start since November, looping a header on to the woodwork. Suddenly Leroy Sané and Agüero were menacing, Kevin De Bruyne more adventurous with his passes, and Silva threatening to orchestrate a revival as if these pedigree players had been reminded of their lofty reputations.

Yet the visitors’ increased threat actually coaxed the best from the home side. David Luiz roused himself, conjuring arguably his best performance of a fine campaign, while Gary Cahill and César Azpilicueta blocked, tackled and forced away everything flung at them. That familiar trio had actually been disrupted from the start, the Spaniard thrust into a role at right wing-back in Victor Moses’ absence, but Kurt Zouma’s toils against Sané had been relieved by his withdrawal at the break. This team sought safety in familiarity thereafter. “We had a better balance and defended very well,” said Conte through a whisper, his throat raw from the evening’s instruction and exhaustion setting in.

It was the kind of defiant scrap the Italian would have relished in his playing days, his current charges heaving themselves to stifle City’s revival. Hazard, a match-winner with his two goals, conceded it was not always “beautiful” to behold but having experienced such a rare and untimely loss on Saturday, this was solely about recovery. His first-half rewards, the opener benefiting from a flick off Kompany’s head and Willy Caballero’s weak attempt to block with his right hand, would claim the points.

Chelsea’s second, plucked 10 minutes from the interval, stemmed from a penalty awarded for Fernandinho’s trip on Pedro, with Cesc Fàbregas’ slide-rule pass in the build-up a thing of beauty. Caballero had at least redeemed himself to a certain extent by blocking Hazard’s penalty, but the Belgian slid in the rebound while the goalkeeper was still prone on the turf. No one can match the 10 goals the winger has scored in this arena this term. “It was a big win,” he added. “We can do better than the way we played but after a defeat, it’s good to come back. Our target is clear.”

So is that of City. For all the exquisite nature of so much of their attacking play, and the periods of dominance they have enjoyed in both fixtures against the champions elect, Guardiola’s team lost both and are 14 points adrift, with qualification for the top four now their priority. The manager, while satisfied his team had performed “1,000 miles better” than in their draw with Arsenal on Sunday, put their failures in the head-to-head down to Chelsea being “better than us in the boxes”. He will address those issues in the summer and City will come back stronger. Just as Chelsea did here after their weekend blip. The title is edging ever closer.


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Mail:

Chelsea 2-1 Manchester City: Eden Hazard's brace puts the Blues' title charge back on track

By Ian Ladyman for the Daily Mail

During any title winning season, there will be a night like this, a night to look back on and recognise that you got away with one.

Chelsea got away with one, here. A distinctly average performance, that is. And, with Tottenham winning so dramatically at Swansea, it was just as well.

The lead over Tottenham remains at seven points and there are eight Premier League games left. Chelsea have games at Manchester United and Everton coming up but also have palatable looking matches against Southampton, Middlesbrough, West Brom, Sunderland and Watford.

So the lead should really be enough and when they look back in May with medals around their necks, they will surely remember this night.

Having lost at home to Crystal Palace at the weekend, another defeat would have changed things. On the balance of play and chances it easily could have happened.

Pep Guardiola's City team should have won and it is typical of their season that they didn't. City are a massive 14 points behind Chelsea now and they really need to ask themselves how that has happened.

Here they were sunk by two goals in the first half by Eden Hazard. The Belgian has won games on his own before but here he scored through a deflected shot and a penalty rebound. As we said at the top, when it's your night, it's your night.


Right until the end Chelsea were hanging on. Antonio Conte's team created only one real opportunity in the second half, Hazard blazing his hat-trick chance high over the bar with 14 minutes left.

City, meanwhile, invented new ways to miss and were still at it deep in stoppage time.

First Sergio Aguero came close, stretching athletically to reach a chipped pass from substitute Nolito to bring a low save from Thibaut Courtois. But then, from the resulting corner, came the miss of the night and indeed one of the misses of the season.

City captain Vincent Kompany rose at the near post to flick the corner on and when the ball reached John Stones, unmarked on the six-yard line, it seemed he had to score. Somehow he didn't, scooping the ball high over the bar and in to a home crowd who by that time must have felt like taking it home.
Stones could have signed for Chelsea from Everton, of course. His time at City has been mixed so far and, though he is sure to improve, this was one of the low points.

The central defender had also spurned a good chance just after the hour. This time his header from a corner was directed straight at Courtois. He was not alone in terms of his wastefulness as Chelsea coughed up chance after chance during this patchy, uncertain performance.

Ultimately, it was three first half goals that decided everything.

City manager Guardiola selected an unusual team, with Jesus Navas once again at right back, Kompany back in the centre of defence and Fabian Delph preferred in centre midfield at the expense of Raheem Sterling.

In terms of possession and flow of play, it worked. Chelsea looked leggy and uncertain and lacked their usual punch on the counter. Their focal point Diego Costa was not unnoticeable – he is never that – but he was ineffectual.

But against this unexpected background, Chelsea scored first in just the tenth minute.

The build-up play between Marcos Alonso and Cesar Azpilicueta down the right was incisive and took City left back Gael Clichy out of the game completely. But when the cut-back reached Hazard 10 yards out his first time shot was struck straight at Kompany.

Had the Belgian stood tall the ball would probably have struck him clean on the nose. But a slight sway away from its trajectory, saw the ball deflect past goalkeeper Willy Caballero's right hand and in to the net. It looked soft from the goalkeeper and on the BBC former England defender Phil Neville called it 'horrific'.

But replays suggested that, if anything, the greater portion of the blame should go to the defender.

City responded to the setback well and the pattern of the game was soon set.

Aguero and Fernandinho both saw shots saved while Delph fired over from distance. Then, in the 26th minute, Courtois cleared straight to David Silva and when the Spaniard's low shot was saved, Aguero shovelled in the rebound.

It was a goal City deserved and almost immediately they could have taken the lead. Chelsea's defence was caught square again by a Silva through pass and Leroy Sane ran clear only to be denied by the onrushing Courtois.

It was a pivotal moment as within eight minutes Chelsea were back in front.  

This time it was Pedro who did the initial damage, swapping flanks to tempt Fernandinho in to a clumsy foul on the edge of the penalty area. Hazard's spot kick was weak and parried by Caballero but the ball came straight back at the Belgian and he hammered it in to the net with his right foot.

Simply put, Chelsea did not deserve to be ahead again and it seemed that they must improve if they were to survive. As it turned out, they didn't and they didn't have to.

Kompany headed a deep free-kick on to the top of the bar in the 46th minute and then Fernandinho slashed wildly over when a hooked pass from Delph dropped over his shoulder square in front of goal.

Had City scored one more, they may well have scored two. The momentum was always theirs and it felt like that kind of night.

In the end, their failings meant that, if this was Chelsea's 'wobble', they may well have survived it already.


CHELSEA (3-4-3): Courtois 6.5, Zouma 6 (Matic 45mins, 6.5), Luiz 6.5, Cahill 7, Azpilicueta 7, Kante 6.5, Fabregas 6.5 (Willian 81), Alonso 6.5, Pedro 6.5, Hazard 8 (Loftus-Cheek 90), Costa 6

Subs not used: Begovic, Ake, Batshuayi, Terry.

Goals: Hazard 10, 35

Booked: Kante

Manager: Antonio Conte 7

MAN CITY (4-2-3-1): Caballero 6.5, Jesus Navas 5.5, Kompany 6.5, Stones 6.5, Clichy 6.5, Fernandinho 6, Delph 7, De Bruyne 6.5 (Sterling 79), Silva 6.5, Sane 6.5 (Nolito 85), Aguero 7

Subs not used: Bravo, Zabaleta, Fernando, Kolarov, Toure

Manager: Pep Guardiola 6.5

Goal: Aguero 25

Booked: Kompany, Clichy, Delph

Referee: Mike Dean 6.5