By Adeyeye Jamiu
Barely three days after Chelsea’s UEFA Champions League victorious away campaign, they eventually bowed out to obey the law of weakness by losing to Manchester City 1 – 0.
It’s not in anyway a surprising game between Chelsea and Manchester City, it’s truely a re-play of almost the same way they played against the home Spanish side, Atletico Madrid.
Whoever that believes that Pep Guardiola won the game on the premise of his team’s current form ans unbeaten run, may likely have to guess the more, so as to arrive at an accurate and specific (genuine) answer.
In the same vein, there was no doubt that, Manchester City deserved a win yesterday [evening] just like Chelsea also deserved a win against Atletico Madrid. The fact remains that, it’s very difficult, if not impossible to play against two big clubs back-to-back and maintain the tempo of fitness, positive results and what have you.
To drive home the point further, recall that Atletico Madrid played back-to-back against two tougher or bigger teams, won the first (Sevilla) and fell submissively to Chelsea at the Estadio Wanda Metropolitano. The same theory applies to Chelsea for two reasons. Firstly, their determination (commitment) towards the surprised-win against Atletico Madrid came as a shock because Atletico appeared to be a weaker side on the pitch and couldn’t put up the needed efforts to win or draw the game due to the fact that, one, they had decipated their energy on that same pitch against Sevilla which were an experienced and prolifically strategic side and two they didn’t come to the party at all on Wednesday against Chelsea.
Secondly, they were already weak – Chelsea.
When you critically evaluate the way Chelsea played against Atletico on Wednesday, you’ll continue to wonder or ask that, ‘is it this same Chelsea that played against Arsenal, not quiet long and as well playing a side that they impeccably and consistently defeated home and away last season. Guess who? …Manchester City?’
From the beginning of the season, the only game Chelsea played with all their strength/energy or with very high moral was their first game in the league that Cahill and Fabregas were punished ans sent off for their rough style of play or hard tackle.
Two things contributed heavily to Chelsea’s home defeat at Stamford Bridge. Firstly, most of their key players that Conte used against Atletico Madrid were already seriously tired or weak. Was it the same Hazard, Morata, Kante, Bakayoko, to mention a few that played excellently (and exceptionally) against Atletico Madrid and that also played yesterday, except for Moses and David Luiz that weren’t on pitch? The answer remains ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ ‘Yes,’ because Kante was almost the strongest player on the pitch that day that almost played all the wings both attacking, covering up where there were lapses and falling back to defend as well. He handsomely appeared the strongest player on the pitch that day till the end of the match. Hazard was dribbling and supplying beautifully decorated passes as if he’s playing against an easy-nose-diving-European-team but surprisingly surpassed his Belgian side, Carrasco.
Secondly, yesterday’s game came unexpectedly or as a shock to both Conte and his players because they just ended up playing a bigger team otherwise accorded huge respect such as back-to-back Semi-finalist and two times finalist against the defending Champions, Real Madrid in the UCL and you expect them to play very well and pick form? That is definitely impossible.
There was no gainsaying that, Chelsea will come back to form and the same can happen to any big/top team in the world. The fact remains that, when you use your first eleven to win a big game with the same motive of winning another tougher side or big game, it will not only weaken them in their next games but they may eventually surrender to one of these two big teams or perhaps lose their next match after those two… An example may suffice at this juncture, recall FC Barcelona’s unoverwhelming defeat at the UCL last season and immediate 2-1 loss in the league game against Deportivo Lacoruna. Same happened last two seasons. It’s natural and moreover, possible because those players aren’t machine or computer that can work maximally non-stop without a draw or defeat.
Although, the away team, Manchester City have tremendously improved drastically (and dramatically) just between last season and this season. Therefore, they would have also fallen prey cheaply to Chelsea if they had played a bigger side in the UCL and moreso played another bigger side on Sarturday with the motive of winning.
That was one of the reasons why Jose Mourinho complained bitterly last season when he’s running games Europa, EPL, FA Cup games days-in-days-out…
Note that, in Chelsea’s next two games, they would have picked form and on top of the situation. It’s not an easy task to play two tougher side back-to-back and expect successive victory in both games. It’s like expecting ‘a needle to pass through the eye of a came.’
Considering the fact that, Manchester City’s key players weren’t available for the game, they still dominated all through. Kun Sergio Aguero would have gotten away with at least a hat-trick yesterday with all the possessive chances N. Jesus was missing. Many of us that were watching the game were asking, where is Kante, Hazard…?
Martin Atkinson in a way favoured the home side as he didn’t award penalty when there was a contact with Jesus… He also overlooked Bakayoko, Marcos A, Cahill’s fouls & yellow card offenses but purposely awarded free-kicks.
The game didn’t in anyway come as a surprise because Chelsea were down on form/fitness due to their immediate-past UCL game.
K. de Bruyne was fantastically the man of the game. Some Arsenal fans were of the opinion that Chelsea supposed to have received the first blow of their defeat against the Gunners.
Immediately Morata was off the pitch, Chelsea’s striking attempts reduced to zero. Bastuayi only came in to run up & down. Willian was also a weakling due to Hazard’s weak form. Hazard & Kante were sweating profusely few minutes into the game & were just falling like dry banana leaves without chlorophyll-photosynthetic contents.
Can Pep Guardiola maintain this unbeaten run till the end of the first legs, only time would tell.
Congratulations to the Manchester City fans by the picking three-points clear at Stamford Bridge!
