It was far from a vintage Pep Guardiola performance, but Manchester City managed a much-needed 2-1 victory against Chelsea at the Etihad.
Manchester City managed just 46.74% possession at home to Chelsea—the lowest of the Pep Guardiola era, but still clawed out a 2-1 victory against top four rivals Chelsea on Saturday.
After Chelsea took the lead through N’Golo Kante following a spell of intense pressure from the visitors, Kevin de Bruyne showed his class as he once again scored against his former club. Although the shot was deflected, the equalizer was fair given the balance of play in what was a relatively even contest. Riyad Mahrez then curled one into the bottom corner to give the Citizens the lead, before an apparent Raheem Sterling goal to seal the contest was chopped off by VAR.
Under manager Frank Lampard, who returned to the Etihad after spending the 2014/15 season in Manchester, Chelsea have built an exciting young team that showed grit and fight against a difficult task. At the end of the day, in a very open match, City proved the better of the two sides as they got the needed result from a highly-entertaining game.
In a worrying twist, star striker Sergio Agüero hobbled off the pitch and went straight down the tunnel with a muscular injury. After the match, Guardiola said that he feared that it could be a “bad” injury that could keep him out for up to three weeks.
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With the victory, City moved up to third in the Premier League table, one point behind Leicester City in second and nine behind leaders Liverpool as the top four begins to take shape through 13 matches. With Wolves and Burnley currently sitting in 5th and 6th, the current composition of the top four (Liverpool, Leicester, City, Chelsea) appears to be the clear-cut front runner to represent England in next season’s Champions League.
Although it was not a conventional win for Guardiola’s men, City found their spark again as they look to crawl back into the Premier League title race. Given Liverpool’s dominance so far this season, however, that remains a difficult proposition. Nonetheless, it is crucial that City look to stay afloat until the defensive injury crisis resolves itself later this season, and today went a long way in accomplishing that goal.