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Manchester City survived a sending off to draw 1-1 against Chelsea at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday. A rejuvenated City side had a tough opening 45 minutes as a resolute Chelsea defense failed to let them take an advantage. Pablo Zabaleta’s red card changed the course of the game as Chelsea immediately took the lead from a perfectly constructed counter attack.However, the night was set for much more. Frank Lampard came off the bench to score and ironically deny Chelsea a win as the emotions ran high over his appearance. Let’s take a look at the five major talking points from this match:
#1 Shades of the bus re-emerge for Chelsea
Ever since the start of the season, Chelsea have been on a flurry of scoring goals. Their new acquisitions, Costa and Fabregas have been instrumental in their recently cultivated attacking flair and brilliance. While that was quite expressive that of the fact that they may stick to that game, today proved that wasn’t the case.
It was old times yet again as Chelsea’s tactics were once again centered on defending their own half and hitting City on the break. They played a midfield four behind Costa which enabled them to defend deep in their own half in a fairly organized manner. However, this didn’t help them going front as they were quite poor on the counter until the sending off.
When we may have just started to believe that Chelsea were shaking off the tag of a defensive team, they managed to come up with yet another showcase of that.
#2 Fabregas was ineffective on the counter; which meant Chelsea were ineffective as well
Chelsea, so far this season have been built around Fabregas. Ever since his arrival, he has been excellent and he has without a doubt been their best player. And so far, Chelsea have been very dominating in their matches. Fabregas, who has spent three years in Spain and six years prior to that in Arsenal performs best when he has the ball. His game is centered upon unlocking defenses when his team dominates possession.
Seeing as that wasn’t the case against City, his impact reduced by a country mile. He had little to no say in the proceedings of the first half and was quite the same until the sending off. Even then, he had no impact on the counter attack which led to the goal. All these are indicators of the fact that Fabregas isn’t cut out to play on the break. If Chelsea are going to base their play around him, this clearly shouldn’t be the game plan.
#3 David Silva and James Milner run the show for City
Unlike Fabregas, David Silva had a profound impact on the game. Starting on the left wing, he moved throughout the frontline and played very well. His link-up with the forwards and James Milner was excellent. Throughout the first half, he was a constant menace in the Chelsea defense and was quite difficult to deal with. He even provided the through ball to Milner who then put into Lampard’s path for the goal.
Their combination works well together with the able assistance of Yaya Toure behind and the formidable presence of Sergio Aguero up front. In the first half, it was City attacking on all cylinders and Silva was the most impressive of them. While Yaya Toure was their best player last season, these two could be the most important this time around.
#4 An emotional return for Frank Lampard
Perhaps, it was written in the script that Chelsea should have their very own Lampard score against them. Chelsea’s all time top scorer raised his hands in an apologizing note as he volleyed home a James Milner lay-off to equalize for City. It was a fairytale return to the Premier League and the worst nightmare of the Chelsea fans. The draw might have seemed acceptable to Chelsea fans over the fact that Lampard had handed it to them but that should never be the case. Such things happen in football but they should never overrule the main goal of a team; that is to win.
#5 It was Chelseas 3 points to lose and they did
After having had a conservative approach throughout the game, Zabaleta’s sending off really lay it up to Chelsea to win the game. And that they scored a goal almost immediately after that shows the advantage they had going into the last twenty minutes. Judging by Chelsea’s defensive organization and stability, you would expect them to close out the game with ease against ten men. And they should have done that.
But, they let the game slip and that cost them two points which would have cemented their position on the top of the table for some time. It was a very good effort by City following the Chelsea goal but the goal was too soft for Chelsea to concede. James Milner shouldn’t have been allowed so much space and Chelsea were rightfully punished for that. At the end, that spoilt the day for Chelsea and these are two valuable points they lost. As evidenced in last season and years before that, every point is important in the Premier league.
