Chelsea stay top of the tree as Aguero sparks mass brawl
TWO men sent off in stoppage time, three second-half goals conceded – it fell apart in spectacular fashion for Pep Guardiola.
Chelsea stay top with their eighth consecutive victory, courtesy of three classic breakaway goals scored by Diego Costa, Willian and Eden Hazard. But that doesn’t come close to telling the full story.
With the game lost, heads were lost too and in the sixth added minute, Sergio Aguero was sent off for scything down David Luiz.
In the melee that followed, Fernandinho was also sent off by ref Anthony Taylor for grabbing Cesc Fabregas by the throat and pushing him over an advertising hoarding.
Chelsea sub Nat Chalobah and Fabregas himself were also yellowcarded in a scuffle which involved almost every player on the pitch, but it was City who were the aggressors, clearly frustrated by an afternoon in which they were the better team, but lost comprehensively.
The repercussions for their title quest will go beyond sacrificing three points to their closest rivals.
Top scorer Aguero will now miss four matches as he’d already been given a retrospective red card for an elbow against West Ham, and Fernandinho will miss three.
Guardiola expressed his regrets about the game’s explosive ending.
“It was a pity it finished like this,” he said. “I don’t like what happened and I apologise. I didn’t think Aguero’s challenge was intentional, but we accept that it was a red card.”
David Luiz attempted to diffuse the issue when he said: “Sometimes other players are frustrated with the result. Aguero is an amazing player, scores a lot of goals, gives a lot for football.
“So I prefer to not talk about this, I prefer to give this victory to those in Brazil (the Chapecoense football team, most of whom perished in last week’s plane crash).
“It was a difficult week for us, especially emotionally because I had some friends there. It was difficult to prepare the head to play this kind of game.”
Some of City’s frustration would have stemmed from the fact City – and Aguero in particular – believed David Luiz should have been red-carded in the first half when he blocked the Argentinian’s chase of a poor backpass by full-back Cesar Azpilicueta.
Referee Taylor judged that the collision was a 50-50 coming together. Had he decided that the Brazilian had committed a foul, he’d have had no choice but to show red.
City had also had two penalty appeals turned down – neither of them conclusive – first a handball by the grounded Gary Cahill, then a tackle on Ilkay Gundogan by N’Golo Kante.
They did get a huge slice of luck, however, in the final minute of the first half, when Jesus Navas’s cross struck the shin of Cahill as he was trying to block at the near upright and flew in at the far post past Thibault Courtois.
But the second half served up a basic lesson for super-coach Guardiola. If you leave the door wide open when you go forward and you haven’t got much pace in your defence, you are likely to be punished by good teams like the one Antonio Conte is putting together.
Courtois had saved with his legs from Kevin De Bruyne, Cahill had cleared off the line from Aguero, and De Bruyne had thudded a shot against the crossbar as City swept mercilessly forward after the break looking to kill off the game.
Then, on the hour, Fabregas launched the ball forward, Costa took it on his chest, shrugged past Nicola Otamendi and rifled it past Claudio Bravo with Chelsea’s first shot on target.
It was the classic sucker punch, and there was another one coming along 10 minutes later.
Courtois had saved well from Aguero and Chelsea were defending desperately, but City got careless. Hazard’s ball out of defence found Costa and he sent substitute Willian through to finish superbly, with Otamendi trailing in his wake.
And it was almost a replay in the final minute when Marcos Alonso’s long ball set Hazard free. This time it was Aleksandar Kolarov running through quicksand trying to catch him, and again the finishing was pure precision.
Three shots, three goals – the perfect record spoiled only when Bravo saved from Willian in stoppage time. City, who have kept only two clean sheets all season, have failed to win their last four home League games.
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