LINING BUT CITY SWEAT
record against Chelsea — nobody has more against them in the Premier League — and he looked at the races from the opening whistle, with one burst of acceleration into the Chelsea box spreading panic.
Lampard knew if his side remained patient, soaking up pressure, they had the counterattacking ability to trouble City’s suspect defence. And that is how it worked to eventually earn Chelsea the lead after 21 minutes.
Abraham led the first charge before setting up Willian to shoot wide. Kante then supplied Abraham, whose curler was narrowly off target.
When Fernandinho failed to clear a corner convincingly, Abraham put the ball back into the danger area and Fikayo Tomori was disappointed to miss the target from eight yards.
Rarely have Guardiola’s City been so vulnerable to breakaways. After 20 minutes, Willian released left-back Emerson whose drive was well held by Ederson. It was entirely deserved, therefore, when Chelsea went ahead. Mateo Kovacic pinged a brilliant pass to pick out Kante’s run towards the penalty box.
The French World Cup winner out-paced international team-mate Benjamin Mendy, took one touch to control and a second to dink past the onrushing Ederson.
City badly needed one of their big players to step up and De Bruyne fulfilled his duty after 29 minutes. David Silva’s pass reached the Belgian on the edge of the box via a couple of deflections and, from there, De Bruyne was composure itself. He cut inside and fired home from 18 yards with a final little nick off Kurt Zouma depriving Kepa Arrizabalaga of any chance.
The turnaround was completed eight minutes later with a great solo goal by Mahrez. Rodri found him just on the right edge of the Chelsea penalty area and there was only one thing on his mind.
He accelerated into the box, cut inside Emerson and dispatched a low finish that went between the legs of Tomori and just inside Kepa’s right-hand post.
Lampard said afterwards: ‘We’ve got to take the positives — we’ve come here against a really good team and had a go — and learn from the negatives and things we can improve on.’