Manchester City vs. Chelsea was supposed to be an intellectual, tactical tete-a-tete between the managers. Like the overall score, the tactical battle was embarrassingly one-sided.
Chelsea probed Manchester City’s vulnerabilities throughout the game. After each attempt, the Blues made subtle changes to how they executed their attack. The first 60 minutes of “not quite, almost there” set up the final 30 minutes of domination.
Each Chelsea goal can be traced to an earlier play that came close, but did not quite make it. Either Pep Guardiola did not see what Antonio Conte and Chelsea were doing to his Citizens, or he was simply unable to deploy a response.
In the 26th minute, Cesc Fabregas bombed a deep pass to Eden Hazard, who went in on goal along the left side. He received the ball at his feet, in-stride. He took a few touches, but could not corral the ball into a strong shooting position.
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Manchester City, rather than recognizing that Fabregas still had the ability to deliver Fabregas-quality passes, made it easy for Chelsea. Thirty-four game minutes later, as Hazard and Willian feinted towards midfield, Diego Costa began his run forward. This stretched City’s defence even further, giving Costa a one-on-one with Nicolas Otamendi.
Fabregas sent nearly the identical pass to Costa. Fabregas was a few yards further up the pitch than he was on the Hazard pass. Costa, though, was merely a few feet away from where Hazard received his Cesc-ball. He took the ball on his chest, in-stride, turned past Otamendi and shot.
The pass and the play that did not come off for Hazard came to fruition for Diego Costa. Cesc Fabregas learned from the first attempt. Manchester City did not.
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Willian, after coming on for Pedro in the 50th minute, took the ball down the right side several times but gave away the opportunities with weak finishes towards Claudio Bravo. Each attempt, though, came closer to the sequence that led to his goal.
Willian had been starting his runs from more advanced positions. He would drift in space parallel with Diego Costa, and begin his run from the top of Chelsea’s line. He gradually drifted deeper into the play, leaving Costa as a lone front-man.
When Chelsea began their counter-attack in the 70th minute, Willian was parallel to Eden Hazard one-third up the pitch. Costa was already at the half way line when he took Hazard’s pass. Willian covered the space between his line and Diego Costa, and then ran into the space between City’s defenders to get on the end of Costa’s ball.
Once again, little refinements to Chelsea’s game that Manchester City either did not notice or could not counter. In under 11 seconds, five Chelsea players touched the ball from Chelsea’s goal mouth to the back of Manchester City’s net.
The second goal started with an instinctive touch-pass from Marcos Alonso in front of Chelsea’s goal to Cesc Fabregas. Fabregas knew where the ball was coming from, and where his outlet (Eden Hazard) would be.
In the 90th minute, Chelsea’s midfielders overloaded Manchester City. The ball squirted loose to Fabregas, who made a similar quick pass to Marcos Alonso free on the flank. Without even looking to see who was there, Fabregas pointed the way upfield for Alonso. Fabregas simply knew that Hazard would be running full-bore along the left.
And why wouldn’t he? Hazard was making a similar run to that from the 26th minute, which was also similar to numerous Willian runs along the right flank. Similar, but with the added benefit of 90 minutes of refinement.
Chelsea wrote, practiced and executed the plan for each goal several times over the course of the game. Either Manchester City – Guardiola included – did not realize what was happening, or could not execute a response effectively and efficiently.
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For a chess match between title contenders (among other mixed, overwrought metaphors), the game was very one-sided. The Premier League is Antonio Conte’s world. Other clubs would do well to live and learn within it.