A stroke of genius woke up the Etihad Stadium. At the end of a closed match, Manchester City, first in the standings, beat their runner-up, Chelsea (1-0), during the 22nd day of the Premier League. Dominating and more offensive (11 shots, 6 on target), Pep Guardiola’s men stumbled for a long time on the good defense of the Blues, before being delivered by Kevin De Bruyne. Thanks to this victory, the Cityzens are 13 points ahead of their main competitor and have a boulevard in the standings.
Still, the Cityzens struggled to take the lead in this encounter. Indeed, Manchester City has long stumbled on the compact defense of the Blues and on a good Kepa Arrizabalaga, holder in the absence of Edouard Mendy, who left for CAN. Symbol of this match, the Spaniard pulled off a high-class parade in front of Jack Grealish. Following a loss of ball from Mateo Kovacic in his half of the field, the Englishman appeared in front of the Spaniard, and missed his face-to-face (39th).
The Light Has Come by Kevin De Bruyne
The former Athletic Bilbao goalkeeper was also vigilant in front of John Stones (13th) or Kevin De Bruyne (24th, 53rd). And as usual, when the Cityzens have no more solutions, the Belgian takes matters into his own hands. After eliminating N’Golo Kanté, the midfielder struck with the right foot from 20m. An unstoppable mine for the goalkeeper of the Blues (70th). He scored his sixth goal of the season.
For their part, the Blues failed to come back to score, angering Thomas Tuchel. Less precise than usual in its counter phases, Chelsea shot for the first time in the game in the second period through Romelu Lukaku (48th). They subsequently failed to return to the game, despite several chances from Timo Werner (72nd, 77th). With this defeat, Kanté’s teammates could lose second place to Liverpool, who are one point behind, with two games less.
Tuchel allume Lukaku
Asked after the meeting about his team’s performance, the former PSG coach was not kind to his striker, Romelu Lukaku: “He has to do the job too. He had numerous losses of balls without being put under pressure, in favorable circumstances. He is part of the group but the performance in attack in the first period … We must do better because we had a lot of transition situations, ”said Thomas Tuchel. A statement that could cause a stir. The Belgian striker having already had to apologize after having displayed his discomfort in public.