It was a dream start for Chelsea, and a nightmare start for young Manchester City debutant Abdukodir Khusanov, whose attempted header back to the goalkeeper was pounced upon by Nicolas Jackson, setting up Noni Madueke for the game’s opening goal with barely 2 minutes on the clock.
And it should’ve been a quick 2-0 inside of 10 minutes, when Trevoh Chalobah released Cole Palmer with an excellent throughball … but somehow Palmer and Jackson managed to miscue that 2-v-1 with the goalkeeper.
And then it got progressively worse for us as City settled in and we slowly checked out of proceedings. Their other new signing, Omar Marmoush was especially a constant threat in-behind, and saw a goal chalked off for offside before some more shambolic defending got City level just before the break: Joško Gvardiol taking advantage to make it 1-1.
It felt then that there would only ever be one winner in this … and that would indeed prove to be true, though still in the most frustrating and infuriating manner imaginable, thanks to another high-profile error from our first-choice goalkeeper.
Chelsea did try to mount a late response, of sorts, but much like our efforts after the first 10 minutes, it was ineffective, aimless, and uninspiring at best. Instead, Phil Foden sealed the deal for City with some route-one football in the final minutes.
Carefree.
- Three changes from the last game, with Colwill, Enzo, and Sancho coming back in for Tosin, Dewsbury-Hall, and Neto
- Like-for-like, position-for-position changes for all three substitutes used, without improving our play; City meanwhile switching to route-one football to score twice.
- City move up to fourth; Chelsea drop to sixth, only ahead of Bournemouth on goals-scored.
- Next up: Graham Potter’s West Ham next Monday night
- KTBFFH
