Manchester City beat Chelsea 3-1 on Saturday to climb above them in the Premier League table.
Chelsea’s evening got off to an ideal start. They capitalised on an error from new-signing defender Abdukodir Khusanov in the third minute of his City debut, with Nicolas Jackson setting up Noni Madueke to put the visitors ahead. However, they were pegged back in the 42nd minute, courtesy of a goal from Josko Gvardiol.
The game went the way of the champions in the second half, with goalkeeper Ederson teeing up Erling Haaland, who lobbed Robert Sanchez in the Chelsea net. Phil Foden then wrapped up the points in the 87th minute.
Here, The Athletic’s experts Sam Lee, Liam Twomey and Anantaajith Raghuraman analysed the game.
Is Sanchez’s position becoming untenable?
“He’s getting better, but he’s still far, far, far from where I want him to be.”
Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca’s public endorsements of Sanchez as Chelsea’s No 1 goalkeeper are getting less effusive and more loaded by the week, and the Spaniard’s latest personal nightmare at the Etihad Stadium tonight leaves the distinct impression that his position in this team is becoming untenable.
Sanchez’s distribution remains extremely shaky, and there were more loose passes and kicks out of play under City pressure as Chelsea failed to manage their early lead. But just as when he dropped a corner kick at the feet of Wolves’ Matt Doherty on Monday, it was the goalkeeping fundamentals that did most to damn him.
The warning signs were there when he parried an Ilkay Gundogan shot straight out to Omar Marmoush, another newcomer making his City debut, to sweep into the net in the 34th minute. A correct offside flag saved Chelsea there, but as Maresca’s press failed to disrupt City’s possession and danger mounted, the visitors got no reassurance from their goalkeeper.
Sanchez scrambled in a panic towards his far post after one trundling Gvardiol shot. He was unlucky two minutes later, spreading himself to save a Matheus Nunes effort only for the ball to ricochet into the path of Gvardiol to tap in the equaliser.
But there are no allowances for bad luck when you make mistakes as frequently as Sanchez does. His worst of the night settled the game in the 68th minute: caught in two minds as Haaland bullied Trevoh Chalobah into the right channel, he put himself in no-man’s land and made himself an easy victim for the Norwegian’s brilliant lob.
Summer signing Filip Jorgensen has not exactly wowed with his scattered first-team appearances in Chelsea’s goal this season, mostly in Europe and the domestic cups, but is it time to take a closer look at him?
Liam Twomey
How did Khusanov fare on his debut?
Guardiola did not sound especially enthusiastic about the idea of having to throw his new centre-back signings — Khusanov, 20, and 19-year-old Vitor Reis — straight into his City team. He said that young players, especially those who do not speak the language yet, are better off being integrated into a stable side, and the Premier League’s outgoing champions are anything but at the moment.
However, City do not have many other options in central defence so Khusanov was handed a start here that he was possibly not ready for.
Within five minutes of the opening kick-off, he had given away a goal and a pass, the latter leading to him being booked for a rash foul on Cole Palmer. He gave the ball away a few more times after that too, and looked very unsettled — when he did things well, he got some sympathetic and then encouraging support from the crowd.
Things did stabilise towards half-time and again afterwards, but Khusanov only saw eight more minutes of action before being replaced with John Stones. He got some more thundering applause after shoving Jackson off the ball and then a standing ovation when leaving the pitch, with the City fans showing their support on what was clearly a very difficult night.
Guardiola and everybody at City would have known about the shortcomings in the youngster’s game — he does struggle on the ball and he is not especially imposing in the air — and would have, in ideal circumstances, allowed him a gentler bedding-in period.
Khusanov has a lot of promise but this game was too much to ask right now.
Sam Lee
What about Marmoush’s display?
It was not the most sparkling debut by any means but Marmoush does seem to add a bit of oomph to City’s attacking game, and that has certainly been needed of late.
The Egyptian forward was caught offside three times in the first half alone. He also frustrated supporters by shooting rather than passing to Foden at one point in the second half (although the pass involved needed to be executed on the half-turn and at exactly the right time with exactly the right weight, so was essentially not really an option), but there was a lot of energy and direct running.
At one point at the start of the second half, he ran back to win a tackle and then dribbled the ball up the line. This is exactly the kind of thing that is going to win you fans in the Premier League, especially given City’s struggles and legginess over the past three months.
Marmoush did not exactly play as a left-winger tonight; he was used ‘off the left’, sliding inside into a channel while Gvardiol moved up the line from left-back. A knock-on effect of that was that Gvardiol was in the thick of City’s attacks, particularly in the first half, and it was he who scored their equaliser just before half-time.
Sam Lee
Did City focus on balls over the top?
City could not penetrate Chelsea’s press in the period after going behind to that early goal.
The tempo to their passing was slow and the visitors pressed aggressively, particularly when the ball went in Khusanov’s direction. When City broke past the first line, Chelsea had a settled back five, with Reece James operating as a third centre-back and closely tracking Marmoush and Madueke dropping deeper to help nullify the threat of Gvardiol, who stayed high and wide.
On a couple of occasions, Foden dropped between the lines on the right to receive and spread the play out to the opposite side of the pitch, resulting in a couple of sweeping City moves. But Chelsea improved their press to force the champions to build out on their left flank, resulting in passes played over the top to find Gvardiol, who was their most potent attacking threat, with limited success.
With the moves concentrated on the City left, Chelsea stayed disciplined to close down that flank and the centre of the pitch, which meant Matheus Nunes was unmarked on the far right in acres of space. City missed the presence of Kevin De Bruyne in these sequences, with their midfielders preferring safe passes while Chelsea baited the ambitious switch, leaving Nunes to call for passes to no avail.
In the 40th minute, Gvardiol went close to scoring after making a blindside run to escape Madueke — not for the first time in the half — and receiving a pass over the top before poking the ball wide from a one-on-one situation. That was a warning sign Chelsea did not heed and City punished them two minutes later.
Having previously waited for the play to come to him, Nunes took matters into his own hands by running on the inside of Marc Cucurella and beyond the last line to meet a ball over the top from Gundogan. His shot was saved by Sanchez but fell to Gvardiol, who had escaped Madueke’s clutches again, to make it 1-1.
The second half saw City alter their approach after growing more composed in possession as Chelsea’s energy levels dropped. Ederson, on multiple occasions, chose long balls towards Haaland and Marmoush, both of whom held the edge in physicality and pace over Chelsea’s centre-backs.
A few minutes before City went in front, Haaland held off both James and Levi Colwill to control an Ederson pass and set up Marmoush, who blazed his shot over. But in the 68th minute, Chelsea paid the price as Haaland nudged a long pass from his goalkeeper past Chalobah on the right flank before cutting inside and sitting him down.
With Sanchez coming off his line and then looking undecided on whether to turn back or charge forward, Haaland had time to lob the ball into the back of the net.
Anantaajith Raghuraman
Did Jackson improve his recent form in front of goal?
As he walked slowly off the pitch after seeing the fourth official hold up his No 15 on the electronic board in the 61st minute, Jackson shot a wide-eyed look back over his shoulder that carried more than a whiff of surprise.
Perhaps it was simply because Maresca had elected to replace him with Christopher Nkunku, a man he had left unused on his substitutes bench in Chelsea’s three previous league matches. But there could be no justifiable surprise at his withdrawal from tonight’s proceedings, which ensured that his run of Premier League games without a goal extends to seven.
Jackson has done plenty of things other than score during that stretch to make himself valuable to Chelsea’s attack, and continued in a similar vein at the Etihad: pouncing on a horrendous error from Khusanov and squaring unselfishly to give Madueke a tap-in inside three minutes.
But just as Maresca’s team grew steadily more passive after taking the lead, so too did Jackson fail to press home his advantage against a back line exploited by a wide range of attackers in recent weeks. Along the way, there were signs that his wait for a goal was affecting his decision-making as well as his confidence.
In the ninth minute here, rather than try to score from Palmer’s (admittedly overhit) square pass when clean through, he instead cut the ball back to Jadon Sancho, whose shot was smothered.
Opportunities were fewer and further between after that as City began to pick apart Chelsea’s feeble press, but three minutes before his substitution, Jackson was sent into a one-on-one with Stones in the left channel. Rather than delay and allow Enzo Fernandez to create an overload, he instead tried a stepover onto his left foot and then fell over attempting a wild shot.
Jackson’s ongoing struggles would be less of an urgent issue for Maresca if he were getting anything from Nkunku, who was once again a jogging passenger in his half-hour here.
Liam Twomey
What next for Manchester City?
Wednesday, January 29: Club Brugge (home), Champions League, 8pm UK, 3pm ET
What next for Chelsea?
Monday, February 3: West Ham United (home), Premier League, 8pm UK, 3pm ET
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(Top photo: Michael Regan/Getty Images)
