BLUES’ BRIDGE DEMOLITION
BLUES FIRE OUT TITLE WARNING DESPITE OUTBREAK
CRISIS? What crisis?!
City may remain gripped by a pandemic that left them without six first-team players, but they showed the immense quality and determination running through the squad with a thumping of Chelsea thanks to goals from Ilkay Gundogan, Phil Foden and Kevin de Bruyne.
After Pep Guardiola’s depleted troops produced their strongest performance of the campaign in their bleakest moment, there won’t be a team left in the division looking forward to facing them in spite of their lengthy absentee list.
The fact City’s game at Chelsea could go ahead with six players missing through Covid while their game against Everton when they had five players missing through the virus highlights the dangers of trying to simplify a situation that is as complicated as it is unprecedented.
While the Blues now indeed have more positive tests at the club, the first-team bubble is secure after a deep clean of the training ground and three rounds of testing since the Goodison Park (non) meeting that have, somewhat surprisingly, confirmed no more red flags.
The more information and knowledge you have on a subject, the lower the risk either of spreading the virus in a football match or being made to look daft for spouting nonsense.
A blow to the conspiracy theorists would be quite why the Blues, on the back of three straight wins and a performance against Newcastle their manager deemed the best of the season, would not have wanted the opportunity to go second in the league against an Everton team missing key players (and about to lose 1-0 at home to West Ham), and the teamsheet at Stamford Bridge confirmed the strength in the squad.
The absence of five players – or eight once you include the injured Nathan Ake, Aymeric Laporte and the virus-hit Eric Garcia – is a major blow but City can still put out an excellent side. Keeper Zack Steffen, Aleks Zinchenko and Phil Foden were the only three changes from the win over Newcastle, even if they were all enforced. Guardiola was still able to field the centre-back pairing that has been almost unbreachable in John Stones and Ruben Dias, while the presence of Riyad Mahrez and Sergio Aguero on an eight-man bench provided attacking options in reserve. Still, Chelsea had a point to prove after a run of one win from their last five games had left Frank Lampard under pressure to prove they can be title challengers under him.
And the home side started stronger against a jittery Blues, who saw Zack Steffen pick up a backpass in the opening five minutes and Zinchenko – making his first league start since July – quickly targeted by dangerman Hakim Ziyech.
Another poor finish from Kevin de Bruyne when put through by Joao Cancelo looked like it would be costly for City, yet suddenly Guardiola’s side clicked in a way they haven’t done against a top side since they dismantled champions Liverpool in July.
First Ilkay Gundogan let the ball run across him on the edge of the box before rifling it past Edouard Mendy, then before Chelsea had time to feel sorry for themselves, Foden clipped home a second.
At Stamford Bridge, City scored their first two goals in 21 minutes – faster than in any of the previous 23 matches this season.
Fast starts were a hallmark of the titlewinning sides under Guardiola in recent years, and have been at the hallmark of what they have been trying to do this
This victory has been Guardiola’s most emphatic of the campaign Simon Bajkowski
year. If you acknowledge k ld th that t you cannot t control 90 minutes because of fitness issues, scoring early makes the game so much easier for a possession-based team.
The comfort that the Blues enjoyed against Chelsea from that moment could only be earned, though, by the sort of precise attacking and clinical finishing that has too rarely been seen.
Scoring goals brings confidence as much as conceding them loses it, and a shell-shocked Chelsea were embarrassed on the half-hour mark as Sterling was allowed to carry the ball unopposed for half the pitch and his curled effort came back off the post and the onrushing De Bruyne tapped home the rebound.
By the time Gundogan was backheeling another flowing move narrowly wide just before half-time, the home team looked like they wanted to be anywhere but Stamford Bridge.
The difference between this performance and City’s visit here in July, when they didn’t take their chances and conceded too many of their own in an erratic display that confirmed Liverpool as 2019/20 champions, h i could ld not th have been starker.
No team in the league could have lived with such a blistering first half and what a moment for City to produce their most devastating performance of the season.
They had won just one of their last seven games away at ‘Big Six’ sides and Guardiola faced questions about his approach after bore draws against United and West Brom less than a month ago.
In any other season those dropped points would have been costly to any title challenge, but the pandemic has lowered the standards required to lift the trophy.
Liverpool, United, Chelsea, Arsenal, and Tottenham have all at some point been hailed as contenders in their opening 16 games, and all have also shown frailties around that. For every thumping of Crystal Palace, there is a draw against West Brom or Fulham.
With a delayed start followed by a failure to sign a centre-back before the season began, City have rarely been spoken about as title contenders while they have been marooned in mid-table.
As the league nears the halfway point, this victory has been Guardiola’s most emphatic of the campaign and lifts them to within four points of leaders Liverpool and United with a game in hand at home to Aston Villa to come.
That match, rearranged for January 20, is the third of three in a row at the Etihad this month in the league that also sees the visits of Brighton and Palace.
It is too early yet to know the damage Covid will wreak on the squad. Newcastle have suffered for more than a month since their outbreak, and the struggles of Ilkay Gundogan at the beginning of the season show it should not be expected all players will be able to return or be at their best when their period of self-isolation ends.
However, if this is the performance level when so many are missing, their rivals are right to be concerned about what is still to come. A week that began with so much chaos and uncertainty at the Etihad has finished with a performance and result familiar to anyone that watched Guardiola’s City win back-toback titles. If they can start games and finish chances as well as they did here, that threat will become more realistic with every game.