City just Kante SLIP cope PREMIER LEAGUE SPORT as 117 Sarri’s Plan A pays off
THAT great head of hair soaring high to meet the ball invariably brings a frisson of anticipation. David Luiz, the Play Station footballer (copyright Gary Neville), is hardly ever boring.
And when he leaps to head the ball, the action is always accompanied by his trademark flowing locks which clearly identify the protagonist.
Yesterday, we saw him principally in his defensive responsibilities. Here was Luiz blocking Raheem Sterling; there he was heading clear from a David Silva corner; next he would be playing a perfect crossfield ball to set up a counter attack.
In most of this, he was magnificently aided by all of his defensive colleagues, though Cesar Azpilicueta was particularly outstanding.
Yet it was on 78 minutes, when that shock of hair rose above John Stones, which induced the mostheightened sense of expectation. It was a moment when you suspected the game was up for City, that the invincible season would elude them once again.
Brazilian Luiz, whose mazy run off the ball through the City sixyard box was never tracked, would connect and direct the ball past his compatriot Ederson and Chelsea would have a 2-0 lead. It was a lead they would never look like ceding.
He celebrated in the style to which we have become accustomed: exuberantly and passionately, sliding on his knees, arms out stretched to embrace the Matthew Harding End.
And it was a glorious moment, not just for Luiz but also for the man who rescued him from the Chelsea scrapheap.
Luiz would certainly not be here if Antonio Conte had stayed as manager and even under Maurizio Sarri his future seemed unsure. And yet he has been a mainstay of Sarri’s attempt to transform this Chelsea side.
‘I have to say I’ve been really very happy with him from the beginning,’ said Sarri of his centre half. He then referenced the doubts that have swirled around Chelsea in the run-up to this game.
Losing to Wolves in midweek was, of course, a setback. But it was the comprehensive Wembley defeat to Tottenham two weeks ago that really pricked the balloon of their 17- match unbeaten run. There, Sarri’s team looked broken; yesterday, they had fixed the problem.
‘Of course there are matches like this one in which it’s easier to stay in the defensive line,’ said Sarri. ‘ The defensive movements are working very well.
‘And there are matches in which it’s really very difficult to stay in the defensive line, like Tottenham, because the defensive phase of the team was a disaster. Today he (Luiz) played a great match, but all the team helped him to play really well.’
Indeed, so much went right for Sarri here that has gone wrong in recent weeks. His key signing, Jorginho, his on-field chief lieutenant, had seemed unable to operate in his usual fashion against Tottenham, with N ’Golo Kante surely a better bet in front of the back four.
Sarri was not for changing and how he was rewarded, Kante’s performance, pretty much as perfect as could be in that box-to-box role. Other than his superbly timed run from deep to score the opening goal, there was a period at the start of the second half where he repeatedly ran through City’s midfield.
As the game waned, he was the man tidying up and nicking the ball in more familiar fashion. Yet he proved beyond doubt he is excellent at both, though Sarri chose to praise his defensive discipline.
‘I think today Kante scored by chance,’ said Sarri. ‘ Today he played very close to Jorginho, more than in the other matches. I think he defended very well. I think today he played in the right position, very close to Jorginho, very, very well.’
As for Sarri, this was a special triumph. We all know that there are ways to cut through a Pep Guardiola team. It’s just that sometimes they won’t give you the ball back, so it’s difficult to demonstrate that fact.
Roberto Di Matteo engineered a famous win over Guardiola’s Barcelona in 2012, but that was pretty much a backs- to- the- wall defensive performance with a set piece goal. There were elements of that, especially in the first half. But having established the lead, Chelsea found their equilibrium and matched City for chances. Indeed, Sarri insisted he hadn’t really hit upon a plan B, even though he started without a centre forward and appeared to sit deep in his own half. That, he said, was due to Eden Hazard’s unfamiliarity with pressing defenders in that position.
‘ He had some problems at the beginning of the match, but I think he played really a very great second half,’ said Sarri. ‘We were in trouble to put pressure on their defenders in the opponents’ half [in the first half]. We had to defend in our half. It wasn’t a choice. But fortunately we defended well. But it wasn’t a total choice to wait in our own half.’
That said, in true rope- a- dope fashion, when the moment came to deliver the counter-punch, they did so decisively and incisively.
So Luiz drilled a ball switching the play to far right with Pedro. City were already struggling with that change of dimension but when Pedro simply took a touch and immediately switched the play again, to the left flank and the onrushing threat of Willian, they were now completely unsettled.
Both full backs pushing up high had been exposed and now Kyle Walker was scrambling to get back.
They survived the initial cross, Fernandinho heading clear, but only to Marcos Alonso and he then fed the man of maximum danger, Hazard, to try again. The Belgian wriggled away and cut back a ball which appeared to be aimless but actually was inviting Kante to produce a lung-bursting run late into the box and finish emphatically.
It put you in mind of a Frank Lampard goal and a more dominant Chelsea team of the past. That was the measure of their victory yesterday.
Prior to the match City seemed invincible. In fact they had only been behind on one previous occasion in the Premier League this s eason and t hen only f or 12 minutes — against Wolves at Molineux in August. Now, maybe, we can even dream of a title race.