Manchester City may be Champions-designate of the Premier League, but they will have to wait a bit longer to officially reclaim the title they lost last season to Liverpool after they lost 1-2 to Chelsea at the Etihad on Saturday evening.
The match up between the two teams which was seen as a preamble to their date in the final of this season's Champions League on May 29, saw enough drama, the height of which was Sergio Aguero's attempt at a penalty kick that eventually cost City three points and a delay in their crowning.
Both managers rotated their squads after a busy midweek in the Champions League semifinal. Guardiola made a wholesome nine changes while Tuchel made five, both giving rest to some of their major players amidst the busy run-in to the campaign.
Having lost out the last time out against Chelsea in the FA Cup semifinal which automatically ended City's pursuit of a phenomenal quadruple, a win for the Cityzens would see them crowned Champions for the fifth time.
City threatened early on and got their first sight at goal in the 17th minute when a Benjamin Mendy cross was deflected unto the path of Rodri by Andreas Christensen, but his shot was blocked and sent wide by Cesar Azpilicueta.
Chelsea should have taken the lead on the 32nd minute when Timo Werner found the back of the net from a Reece James' cross back across goal but the offside flag was there to deny them of the breakthrough.
The Germany international would miss another opportunity moments later after his curling efforts sailed well wide off Ederson's goal.
Chelsea as have been under Thomas Tuchel, continued to display their superiority as shown in recent times with continued dominance and Hakim Ziyech forced a double-handed save from Ederson in the 43rd minute.
Even though City were finding opportunities hard to come by, the breakthrough came for them just on the stroke of half time when Christensen failed to clear a long ball into the Chelsea defence, under pressure from Gabriel Jesus, who sent his cross into the six-yard box where Sergio Aguero was waiting. The Argentine couldn't control the ball with his first touch and it was slipping away, only for the on-rushing Raheem Sterling to sweep home with his left foot.
Questions were begging as to why Aguero was looking to control the ball in the first instance as a simple connection would have sent the ball into the net with Eduoard Mendy already beaten by Jesus's cross. Christensen was injured in the process and had to be attended to by the medics after which, he was eventually replaced by Kourt Zouma as he could no longer continue.
Just when we thought the drama was over, with two minutes of additional time played in the first half, Chelsea conceded a penalty after Billy Gilmour fouled Gabriel Jesus. The resulting penalty was taken by Sergio Aguero who tried to do a paneka which was comfortably saved by Mendy. Paneka gone wrong.
For a lot of critics who have been about the way Guardiola has been treating Aguero, that horrible attempt at a paneka will now give more credence to Guardiola's justification of overlooking the club's record goalscorer who will leave the club at the end of the season. He may have well played his final game for Pep.
Momentum was with City with that vital goal coming at the dead end of the first half but the penalty save seemed to have spurred Chelsea on for the remainder of the game.
Chelsea deservedly got their equalizer in the 63rd minute. A fine build-up was rounded off with a cutback by Cesar Azpilicueta to the edge of the City box where Hakim Ziyech was lurking. The former Ajax star set the ball for himself with aam deft first touch, before hammering a low shot into the bottom left corner of Ederson's goal. Chelsea back in the game deservingly.
It looked like the equalizer by Chelsea was a huge let down on Guardiola has he decided to draw more firepower, replacing Aguero with Phil Foden and Ilkay Gundogan coming on for Ferran Torres. Both have been very instrumental this season for the side but couldn't do much to change the outcome of the game.
Tuchel also took off N'golo Kante who won the man of the match in both legs of their Champions League semifinal clash with Real Madrid to allow the Frenchman a bit of rest. He was replaced by Jorginho.
The visitors were further denied two goals in the space of two minutes, between the 79th and 81st minute. First it was Werner again who slotted into an empty net after beating Aymeric Laporte and Ederson but the offside flag caught up with him having moved a bit too early to receive the pass from Jorginho. Callum Hudson Odoi was the second unlucky player when he moved an inch too early to meet a Reece James' cross.
Chelsea would not, however, be denied in the second minute of stoppage time when Werner's ball into the box was picked up by the emerging Marcos Alonso who fired from close range to win the game for Chelsea and completed their double over Guardiola's men in a space of 22 days.
This was Chelsea first win away at Manchester City since 2016 and the win takes them up to third on the log, displacing Leicester City who also lost to Newcastle United almost 24 hours earlier.
Manchester City will now have to hope that neighbours, Manchester United lose on Sunday at Villa Park to enable them win the title without having to kick the ball.
Interestingly, Man United will play three times in five days before City's next game, a time at which, should United win all three games, the gap between them will be cut to four points. What an ending to the season.
Comments