City crush Chelsea
Gundogan, Foden, Kevin combine sinks Lampard’s men
London, Jan. 4: Manchester City left Chelsea in disarray by sweeping to a 3-1 victory on Sunday with a ruthless attacking display that consigned Frank Lampard’s team to a fourth loss in its past six Premier League games.
Ilkay Gundogan, Phil Foden and Kevin De Bruyne scored in a devastating 16-minute first-half spell as City rose to fifth in the standings despite Coronavirus cases depleting the squad.
Chelsea is only three points behind City but has played two games more and the manner of this defeat will be alarming to notoriously impatient owner Roman Abramovich.
In the 18th minute, Foden received a pass from De Bruyne and teed up Gundogan on the turn to net his third goal in four games. City was in devastating form, orchestrated as so often by De Bruyne with less than three minutes between the opening two goals.
An initial cross from the Belgium playmaker was intercepted by Thiago Silva, but he regained the ball to set up Foden for the second. It was a slick final touch from Foden that allowed him to beat Mendy at his near post.
The third was started and completed by De Bruyne. He headed to Sterling to launch a breakaway down half the length of the pitch unchallenged before hitting the goal frame with a shot. By that time, De Bruyne had arrived to meet the rebound in the 34th minute.
Only Mendy’s quick reaction in the Chelsea goal prevented a closerange header from Rodri going into the top corner at the start of the second half. —