There was a phase of play just after half time, we tried to play out but city pressed well and the ball and ed up back at kepa. We then play some fantastic 1 and 2 touch passes, which resulted in Willian winning the free kick outside the box.

I also thought it was an interesting passage of play, because jorginho didn't even touch the ball, so we are finding solutions the play 'sarri ball' without everything coming though jorginho.

That is exactly what sarri wants, and the more we play with confidence, the easier we will be able to play through teams, and simply man marking jorginho will not be the answer. 

That performance was amazing, even if we don't win the league, I will always look back at this game as one the most amazing games we have ever played. When I woke up this morning, it still felt like a dream until I check the EPL table to confirm City have lost a match! Beating them twice under Conte didn't even made me feel this good. I hope we can start a winning streak from here because we have shone the the remaining teams that City are beatable!

Yesterday Sarri played his strongest team hence no striker changes until 90th minute. The important subs made were midfield ones.

Brilliant run by Willian to pick up Pedro's cross-field pass yet he almost mis-controlled it.  The surprising thing was the support after a messy moment with Alonso getting up there and moving it to Hazard who then superbly finds Kante.

We won today by playing counter attack football to get in front, not many teams will come against us like City so not sure how this result will play our in the following weeks. Hopefully it does as on paper we have a lot of winnable matches.

We seemed to play like a well oil machine in a way we have not to-date gain hopefully we take this form forward.

Interesting comment from footy 365 on Sarri after the match:

 “It is difficult for us to find motivation but when we are, we are a very strong team. Today we played with a very good level of application, determination and the right level of aggressiveness.”

 

https://www.football365.com/news/chelsea-manchester-city-16-conclusions

 

 

 

 

23 hours ago, TheBluesBrother said:

The wheels are coming off of SarriBall at the wrong time. The reality is that we have too many players that are not good enough all over the field. Sarri is worried and so am I. This side needs new blood. Man City will win today and I doubt I will watch it. It's a mess at Chelsea FC with Roman in Israel and some bird who knows zilch about football buying our players. We need good players in January. COME ON YOU BLUES !!!

Spot on ... NOT !
Coming off ??..  We've lost only 2 competitive games in the first half of the season, so where are all these 'many' players that aren't good enough ?
Where's the 'mess' at Chelsea ??
We sit in the top 4, unbeaten in all domestic cups, top of our European group, all with a new manager and completely new style of attacking football, and all after just a few months rebuilding !!
I'm sorry fella but this is one of those completely over the top posts, that you thought would be vindicated after we took a beating from city, well we didn't and your knee jerk post looks rather silly now me thinks.

4 hours ago, Strider6003 said:

The surprising thing was the support after a messy moment with Alonso getting up there and moving it to Hazard?? who then superbly finds Kante.???

Alonso is so much more dangerous when he’s inside. Out in the wing, either on defense or in the attack, he’s not nearly as effective. He’s not a great crosser of the ball, but he plays subtle touches, has good vision and is very calm when he’s in tighter spaces. The Under-lap really plays well for him if he has defensive support behind him. 

To no one’s surprise, Hazard’s best moments also came when he was out wide. This wasn’t about him being a False 9, but it was about having three players in attack who are more effective than either striker. A proper striker and Hazard can get back to his most dangerous self cutting in front the flanks. I don’t want him Central full time. 

I saw a comment about Barkley and Ruben and that Ruben was a little better. While I agree, he was also a bit higher on the pitch as one of the wingers, so not quite as congested as Barkley in midfield. I thought Barkley did very well. He makes me a little more nervous against the press than many of the other players, but I love his strength and power to close down when we need to chase. 

Willian farther back, rather than up on the wing was definitely more effective. I don’t like what he does in the final third most of the time, but there’s virtually no one I’d rather have with the ball on the sidelines at midfield with two City players closing him down. He’s fully capable of beating any defender in the world 1v1 and releasing pressure, something he did very well Yesterday. 

 

Edited December 9, 20187 yr by Skinnedy

19 hours ago, TheBluesBrother said:

Guardiola has lost three leagues games against Chelsea, more than against any other side as a manager.

it's a chelsea thing

How was the MOTD coverage btw? I mean, apart from the usual wnakfest over dippers and the "CFC are racists anyway + David Luiz and Alonso should get a 3 game retroactive ban by the FA" parts ?

Edited December 9, 20187 yr by Londonisblue

18 hours ago, coco said:

i wish someone would remind him of his 'choc ice' remark.

While they are at it remind him at the start of the season when he said Chelsea are not on utd’s level 

@london is blue The coverage was short they mentioned the racist incident at the end yet did not cover much of the match unfortunately. 

The made a bit out of the corner that Barkley won leading up to the goal saying it looked soft.

9 minutes ago, Strider6003 said:

@london is blue The coverage was short they mentioned the racist incident at the end yet did not cover much of the match unfortunately. 

The made a bit out of the corner that Barkley won leading up to the goal saying it looked soft.

Correct me if i am wrong, but, they said that you could not see if it was, so they were not sure how Pep would know if it wasn't from 50 metres away on the touchline, thats what i read from it anyway. But if they could of been bothered to slow it down you can see the ball just slightly deflect of the studs and go out for the corner, pretty sure Oliver would not give us anything unless he see's it. 

16 minutes ago, Strider6003 said:

@london is blue The coverage was short they mentioned the racist incident at the end yet did not cover much of the match unfortunately. 

The made a bit out of the corner that Barkley won leading up to the goal saying it looked soft.

Well, I did not expect any better from them to be honest

Edited December 9, 20187 yr by Londonisblue

21 minutes ago, Strider6003 said:

@london is blue The coverage was short they mentioned the racist incident at the end yet did not cover much of the match unfortunately. 

The made a bit out of the corner that Barkley won leading up to the goal saying it looked soft.

Well, MOTD replay showed it did come off the defenders studs, so it’s a corner.

Pep obviously has amazing eyesight to see it didn’t from 50 yards away

Funny how some man city fans are openly saying that they lost because Aguero was injured...As if they do not have the first striker for Brazil's national team on the bench...

5 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

Funny how some man city fans are openly saying that they lost because Aguero was injured...As if they do not have the first striker for Brazil's national team on the bench...

Excuses ... They can't fathom the idea that their team can be defeated fair and square. Plus everyone has injuries.

1 hour ago, Gol15 said:

Funny how some man? city fans are openly saying that they lost because Ague?ro was inju?red

We didn’t even have our first choice striker in the 18 

 

1 hour ago, Gol15 said:

Funny how some man city fans are openly saying that they lost because Aguero was injured...As if they do not have the first striker for Brazil's national team on the bench...

Odd comment to make considerign teh amount of times that bloke is injured anyway. In fact it wasn't that long ago he wasn't even starting games and had a period on the bench

14 minutes ago, WhiteWall said:

Odd comment to make considerign teh amount of times that bloke is injured anyway. In fact it wasn't that long ago he wasn't even starting games and had a period on the bench

Shows a lot of man city "fans" doesn't it, they almost sound like Pep needs more money for more players, delusional really. While at the same time we didn't play with a natural striker the whole game.

Edited December 9, 20187 yr by Gol15

David looks like he's about to kill Hazard

Great result, watched the game twice. We would be better with an Aguerro  type striker. Willian and Pedro both missed good shots the same as against wolves. Hazard is not much use as false 9 really  

Kovacic is excellent at keeping the ball, but not much in attack. 

Loved the way kante, luiz and Dave played. 

As for citeh, Mahrez is not de bruyne and David Silva is ageing. 

‘Our goal difference this season is great and I think we may build on this result. 

I was really nervous going into this game. I thought we were going to lose and drop out of the top 4. We rode our luck in the first half, but the second half was phenomenal and deserved more goals. Top 4 is still going to be a tough fight, but this should be a good confidence booster.

10 hours ago, ozboy said:

Great result, watched the game twice. We would be better with an Aguerro  type striker. Willian and Pedro both missed good shots the same as against wolves. Hazard is not much use as false 9 really  

Kovacic is excellent at keeping the ball, but not much in attack. 

Loved the way kante, luiz and Dave played. 

As for citeh, Mahrez is not de bruyne and David Silva is ageing. 

‘Our goal difference this season is great and I think we may build on this result. 

Yes. Aguero-type and Giroud. Morata doesn't offer anything. Could we lure Insigne? 

13 hours ago, WhiteWall said:

Odd comment to make considerign teh amount of times that bloke is injured anyway. In fact it wasn't that long ago he wasn't even starting games and had a period on the bench

Is that officially classed as an injury?

On 08/12/2018 at 19:47, Valerie said:

Jeez Kev, how long did it take you to assemble those quotes, don't you have anything better to do 

I expected us to lose too btw 

Took a matter of seconds, Val.  I have the Cheese-eating Surrender-Monkey App. It collates all posts that display a lack of intestinal fortitude and generates a suitably pithy comment for me to approve before posting. (I had to limit the selection number as there were so many it would have taken up an entire page)

And I thought we might lose too.  The difference is that neither of us, nor many other sensible posters, went into full overblown Private Fraser mode.

 

I'd also like to say I thought Sterling was excellent for Citeh despite missing their best chance. He beat Alonso pointless once and was a threat every time he had the ball. I remember some on this forum saying when he moved from Liverpool that he was nothing more than another SWP but he's proved to be a lot more.

I think what pleased me most about the match was Sarri's game management. For the first time this season he showed he was willing to be flexible and adapt our style. He had a different game plan, and the players managed to execute it. I would even go as far as saying that he tactically outwitted Guardiola (albeit with some luck) and he must be given huge credit for that.

Pep expected us to play our usual high press and wanted to exploit the space behind us by using Sterling as the roving striker. Sarri knew that this would've played straight into their hands, so we defended very deep (to Guardiola's surprise) and drew them forward before taking advantage either with a ball over the top, or with passing combinations to get behind their marauding full backs - Kante did this to great effect in the second half against Delph. It didn’t work quite so well in the first half and we were struggling to get out, but with a couple of tweaks in the second half, we looked the most likely to score.

It was also the first time that Sarri has used both Kante and Kovacic in deeper positions alongside Jorginho to help block their runners. Tactically, it was a fascinating game, and we showed the rest of the league a way to beat them. It wasn't pretty, but it got the result. I don't think many of us saw it coming.

I was worried for the players after the first 30 minutes. It looked like we could've been on the end of a hiding, but they defended brilliantly. We may have got lucky with the goals, but City were limited to very few clear cut chances, which is no mean feat.

I still have reservations about the mentality of some of our players. Being up for this game, but not the likes of Wolves or Spurs is a concern. Hopefully Sarri can use this game as an example to some of them, as in; ''THIS is how I want you to defend!''.