Chelsea 0-1 Manchester City: Premier League highlights and recap

Manchester City beat Chelsea 1-0 on Saturday, Sept. 30 at Stamford Bridge. Here are all the highlights from the match.

Manchester City made the most emphatic statement yet of their title credentials on Saturday, beating Chelsea 1-0 at Stamford Bridge thanks to a stunning left-footed strike by Kevin De Bruyne.

Alvaro Morata had the match’s first sight of goal in only the third minute, but couldn’t direct his header on target, before De Bruyne tested Thibaut Courtois for the first time shortly after. City were then almost gifted the lead, when Courtois was closed down by Gabriel Jesus, whose block spun narrowly wide of the goal in the 12th minute.

The match was a hard-fought affair throughout, but the end-to-end battle of the first half turned increasingly one-sided after Alvaro Morato was forced off with an injury in the 35th minute. The Spaniard had been City’s primary out ball, and was causing John Stones and Nicolas Otamendi problems with his strength and running in behind.

Chelsea, without their attacking focal point, retreated into a more defensive shell, and City’s waves of attack grew more and more urgent as the second half progressed. The breakthrough, as seems increasingly to be the case for the Citizens, came through De Bruyne, who exchanged passes with Jesus in the 67th minute before thrashing a powerful, curling shot past Courtois.

In an effort to get back into the game, Antonio Conte turned to Michy Batshuayi and Pedro, but neither was able to engineer a breakthrough as City slowed their tempo and looked to hit Chelsea on the break as they saw out their best win of the season so far.

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Highlights

City maintain their place at the top of the table with the win, but Manchester United’s 4-0 victory against Crystal Palace earlier in the day means their advantage in goal difference shrinks to one. Chelsea, meanwhile, move down one spot into fourth place after Tottenham beat Huddersfield.