FOUR SHAME: Quad hopes dashed at Wembley
FAREWELL then to the Quadruple. See you next year, maybe.
City’s bid for history ended meekly at Wembley as an understrength team succumbed 1-0 to Chelsea with one of their worst performances of the season.
Hakim Ziyech’s goal was enough to end Pep Guardiola’s FA Cup hopes for another year, with Kevin De Bruyne limping off at the start of the second half adding injury to insult.
Ultimately City got exactly what they deserved for a poor collective performance riddled with individual mistakes and Guardiola must now refocus his team for a tricky trip to Aston Villa in midweek before they return to Wembley for the Carabao Cup final.
Despite the strength of the opposition, this very much had the feel of a B team given there were eight changes from the XI that booked their place in the Champions League semi-final in midweek.
Chelsea, by contrast, had made just three from their game with Porto on Tuesday with Timo Werner, Hakim Ziyech and Kepa Arrizabalaga – who famously refused to be substituted the last time he faced City at Wembley – coming in.
However, not only had the gauntlet had been laid down by the manager ahead of the game for players to keep their place in the team but there was still some serious talent on the pitch Could Aymeric Laporte convince of the importance of a left-footed centreback for the big games?
Could any of the front three that flunked against Leeds score two or three to show Guardiola he was wrong to have left them out before?
Some players earn more opportunities than others but nobody in the squad can complain that they’ve not had a fair crack to impress.
It can’t help those trying to play themselves into form though to be thrust together with everyone else out of favour. Guardiola retained just Rodri, Ruben Dias and Kevin De Bruyne from the Dortmund game and City looked as disjointed as they did last week in the Premier League.
The two highlights of the first half for most Blues watching was Fernandinho’s unerring ability to avoid getting booked for numerous fouls while seeing others carded for first offences, and Mike Dean sending both teams back into the tunnel.
A tame right-footed effort from Gabriel Jesus was the only shot on target in the half but Chelsea will have been the happier.
Ben Chilwell should have done better from a Reece James cross as Tuchel’s side enjoyed themselves in behind City’s full-backs.
While No.2 Zack Steffen wasn’t severely tested, the biggest plus for Guardiola at the break was that the scoreline remained 0-0.
The sight of De Bruyne sitting down on the turf minutes after the restart and signalling he could not continue piled on more pain – even if it did bring Wednesday’s matchwinner Phil Foden onto the pitch.
The manager only spoke on Friday about how De Bruyne has played himself back into top form and he will be sorely missed if he is out for any length of time in this run-in.
Torres, Jesus, and Sterling had 40 minutes to show why they should be the one to fill that place for the next game, but it was Chelsea who instead changed the game.
Timo Werner found space in behind Joao Cancelo, Zack Steffen came forward to meet him before hesitating and heading back, with the German rolling the
Guardiola retained just Rodri, Dias and De Bruyne from the Dortmund game Simon Bajkowski
ball across for Hakim Ziyech to tap into an empty net.
If the hope for City was that conceding would wake the team up, they had Steffen to thank they weren’t further behind shortly afterwards.
Dias missed a routine ball lofted over the top and the goalkeeper spread himself well to deny Ziyech, with Dias recovering to deny Werner on the rebound.
On came Ilkay Gundogan to try and pep the team up, but still no avail.
It said a lot about how misfiring the side were when Rodri jumped well at the back post to head a corner back into the six-yard box and Dias rose to meet it only to get his timing wrong and see it hopelessly over the bar.
The centre-back cried out angrily before falling down and beating the ground in frustration.
Having failed to adequately test Chelsea all game, the big chance finally arrived with seven minutes to go but was fumbled in familiar fashion by the struggling Jesus and Sterling.
The Brazilian could not post a threat himself in the box but did manage to knock it back for a team-mate to rush onto and hit, only for Sterling to lash it over the bar.
Guardiola turned around, deflated, and that was that. This can still be just a minor blip in a hugely successful season for City.
They remain in an excellent position to wrap up the Premier League title soon, they are one game away from Carabao
Cup success and they are closer to Champions League glory than they have ever been under their current manager.
But if the Leeds performance and result could be written off last week because of its (expected) irrelevance to the competition, here at Wembley the lineup has had major consequences on City’s hopes of winning the FA Cup. Guardiola may think again before playing this front three again together, for instance, after two consecutive failures.
Serious improvement is needed next weekend if the Blues are going to lift their first trophy of the season, and the manager has work to do to get the best out of his squad as they approach the final straight of their campaign.