Jesus seizes victory as slick City prepare for Real clash in style
Olivier Giroud has been directly involved in 14 goals in 14 starts for Chelsea in all competitions, scoring 10 and assisting four.
Goal involvements for Marcos Alonso since joining Chelsea in 2016, with 17 goals and 11 assists, more than any defender in the top flight in that time.
Manchester City head to their Champions League tie with Real Madrid after seeing off a spirited Leicester side in a game that fizzed with energy. For Pep Guardiola, it was a send-off to relish, given that such opportunities for travel may soon be off his agenda.
“The reaction we had to an incredible team, it was a good test for us,” said the City manager.
Their fans, however, continue loudly to insist that their Champions League ban can be overturned. The visiting blue hordes spent much of their evening predicting that they would see Uefa in court. Though in truth if anyone needs suing it is City’s kit designer, who sent the team out in a yellow and peach-coloured outfit apparently inspired by fruit salad sweets. Its garish colour scheme looked particularly odd on a February evening soured by yet another wretched spell of weather.
What became immediately clear, however, was that wind and rain could not diminish the quality of football. Here were two teams of real invention going head to head in the squall, orchestrated by two of the best playmakers in the league. In the blue corner was James Maddison and in the yellow and peach corner Kevin De Bruyne.
Maddison was the first to rise, sending Jamie Vardy through on goal to shoot against a post.
City immediately hit back when Kyle Walker played in Sergio Aguero whose lay off to Ilkay Gundogan was a giltedged invitation to score. He underhit his effort. Then Benjamin Mendy took a shot from a corner that was deflected over before De Bruyne fired wide.
Despite City’s territorial advantage, some of Maddison’s passing must have had even Guardiola salivating. His chip over the City defence to Iheanacho was a thing of beauty. Unfortunately the striker was flattened by the onrushing Ederson with the kind of punch Tyson Fury would admire. It was deemed an accidental collision by the referee.
After a surging run, De Bruyne passed perfectly to Aguero, who duly put the ball in the net. But he was deemed offside. Aguero was then upended by Caglar Soyuncu just outside the box. To the delight of home fans, who booed their former favourite’s every touch, Riyad Mahrez fired over.
Still stunned by his first-half knockout, Iheanacho did not appear after the interval, replaced by Harvey Barnes. The newcomer was an admiring spectator when Kasper Schmeichel pulled off a magnificent one-handed save to keep out what looked a certain goal from De Bruyne’s bazooka of a shot.
It was perhaps inevitable in a game as tight as this that it was to be VAR that intervened in an attempt to break the deadlock. It suggested a Gundogan shot had hit Denis Praet on the arm. This infuriated Brendan Rodgers. While accepting it was hand ball, he wondered why the technology was not applied when De Bruyne got his hands in the way of a Maddison free-kick or when Ederson floored Iheanacho.
“I don’t think VAR is the problem, it’s the interpretation around it we need to improve,” he said.
Mind, giving City a penalty does not guarantee a goal. And the crowd felt justice was served when Schmeichel saved Aguero’s spot-kick with his knee to maintain City’s puzzling ineptitude from 12 yards. “I said to them the next one we are going to score, and the taker be convinced,” said Guardiola, who did not criticise Aguero. “Sergio wanted to take the penalty, I like that mentality.”
City, though, always had it in them to seize the points, which they duly did when, after a surging run, Mahrez played in substitute Gabriel Jesus, who found the one part of the Leicester goal Schmeichel could not cover. Naturally the joy of the goal was diluted by the wait for VAR to decide if the scorer was offside. Anyone in the stadium could see that he wasn’t.
So it was that City could now plan for their trip to Spain, safe in the knowledge they had reduced Liverpool’s lead at the top of the table to a mere 21 points. It can’t be described as the most substantial reward for a victory as hard won as this.