UNDER City set pace Tuchel to run
PANIC at the pumps turned all roads to Stamford Bridge into a slalom, but the message from Pep Guardiola is still the same.
In the title race you write off Manchester City at your peril. Like motorists queueing for petrol, fuel if you think it’s over. Anyone who thought that City would stroll along Fulham Broadway and then and roll over got a timely reminder: form is temporary, class is permanent.
In a country in the grip of panic buying at the filling stations and growing rows of empty supermarket shelves, at least City owner Sheikh Mansour is unlikely ever to find himself down to his last jerry can of unleaded in the boot.
And when energy prices go through the roof this winter, Pep can afford to leave the central heating on.
Don’t panic? City were 14th last November and still took the chequered flag with 12 points to spare.
In Pepland there are no bumps in the road – only contours.
For all the dizzying cast of talents Guardiola has assembled, and all the No.1 hits in his back catalogue, at face value there appears to be no lead singer in the band.
By missing out on Harry Kane and Cristiano Ronaldo in the late summer game of stick-or-twist, City look like the Rolling Stones without Mick Jagger, T. Rex without Marc Bolan, the Four Seasons without Frankie Valli.
But if Gabriel Jesus is not the answer, he’s a valid question mark. If a poacher with 85 goals in 118 starts is not an adequate replacement for Sergio Aguero, who is?
If Jesus blows hot and cold, and his third goal of the season bobbled into the
corner apologetically, it was no more than City deserved.
Just like the Champions League final back in May, they were way more ambitious, more enterprising, more interested in setting the agenda.
On this evidence, City may yet be able to sustain a defence of their title and another tilt at the Champions League without Guardiola having to search for new Aguero.
Chelsea added £97.5million Romelu Lukaku – 25 goals a season waiting to happen – to an already powerful hand.
But he was isolated for 45 minutes and tethered expertly when Thomas Tuchel’s hermits finally ventured beyond the halfway line.
BT Sport pundit Rio Ferdinand identified Lukaku as Chelsea’s missing jigsaw piece, saying: “He’s been immense – he’s an animal, and that’s what you need. Chelsea were looking for a focal point up front and he’s that guy.”
The former England star added: “Lukaku went away under a cloud at Manchester United and he’s come back an animal, someone you can count on to win you trophies.”
But with the service patchier than tanker deliveries to petrol stations, Lukaku’s touch deserted him this time.
Pep’s Blues dominated possession and territory, Chelsea were happy to pick their pockets on the break until they fell behind – and Guardiola enjoyed a rare success against the nearest thing to his bogey side.
Among eight defeats against the Londoners in his managerial career – more than any other side – was the most damaging of all.
Guardiola will never live down
C i t y ’s Champions
League final defeat in Porto four months ago until he brings the holy grail to The Etihad.
And Chelsea fans taunted the visitors by wielding inflatable European Cup trophies and frequent reminders from the stands: “Champions of Europe, you’ll never sing that.”
But as a familiar blue moon rose over the Premier League’s upper slopes, for City there was an element of sweet revenge for Antonio Rudiger’s awful challenge on Kevin De Bruyne in the Champions League final.
And in the title race, it was Chelsea who looked likelier to run out of gas.