Chelsea look lost without Kanté as City breeze past the blues
By Elliot Howey
Manchester City netted an easy victory over Chelsea F.C., who were without N’Golo Kanté on Sunday.
Bernardo Silva’s 46th minute goal was enough to secure a 14th straight home win for Manchester City on Sunday, who take another huge step to league dominance.
The playmaker has really stepped up to the plate in the absence of injury-stricken Raheem Sterling, backing up his impressive goal on Thursday with today’s winning goal.
City’s goal came within a minute of the restart, as Sergio Aguero received the ball on the left side of the field. He slipped the ball to David Silva, who whipped a fantastic cross to the back post, where Bernardo Silva was waiting to slide the ball home.
However, for all of City’s dominance, they rarely got out of second gear. Chelsea sat off Pep’s men and allowed City to pass the ball freely for large parts of the game. If it wasn’t for some last-ditch defender from the Chelsea back line, it could have been 2- or 3-nil.
Chelsea were without Kanté today, whose energy and pace was hugely missed by the blues, who look lost and scared of Manchester City all day. What will disappoint the Chelsea fans will be their lack of an attacking threat. Even when Chelsea went down by a goal, they never responded or changed their approach to the game. The likes of Pedro, William and Hazard were largely spectators alongside Ederson, who was very rarely tested by Chelsea.
Chelsea leader Antonio Conte’s attitude and recent comments look as if they have affected his players today. His pre-match comments about Chelsea’s lack of spending and their chances off matching Man City looked to spook his side.
Chelsea’s ability to believe they could match Man City’s energy and quality shone through today in a performance which lacked any confidence that they could really hurt a classy Manchester City side. Chelsea for large parts of Sunday’s game looked resigned to defeat. They surrendered territory and possession far too easily against a City side which does not need further encouragement to press and hustle the opposition.
The London club started with their usual 5-4-1, with Eden Hazard as their unorthodox number nine. Alvaro Morata and new signing Olivier Giroud had to sit and watch a frustrated Eden Hazard become more and more isolated as the game went on.
The defeat for Chelsea, and the manner of it, may have been more damaging than the loss of the three points. Their ability to match a side who dominate the ball may worry Conte, who has to come up with a plan to beat a Barcelona side dominating La Liga when the two sides meet in the champions league in the coming weeks.
While Conte’s future is still up in the air, his persona and comments are not those of a man who wants to stay at Chelsea.