Man City outclass Chelsea to hand Lampard another reality check

Manchester City's German midfielder Ilkay Gundogan (2nd R) celebrates scoring the opening goal with Manchester City's Portuguese midfielder Bernardo Silva (R) and Manchester City's English midfielder Phil Foden (C) during the English Premier League football match between Chelsea and Manchester City at Stamford Bridge in London on January 3, 2021.

Chelsea fell to a fourth defeat in six Premier League games as Manchester City handed Frank Lampard another title race reality check with a 3-1 win at Stamford Bridge.

Ilkay Gundogan fired City into an early 1-0 lead, drilling in on the turn from the edge of the area following a neat assist from Phil Foden.

Foden doubled City's lead almost immediately, sweeping home in style from Kevin De Bruyne's low cross to make it 2-0 to the visitors.

Chelsea had started solidly enough but any home impetus evaporated on conceding two soft goals from the Blues' perspective, with a running inquest seemingly going on between Thiago Silva and Kurt Zouma.

The hosts' first half went from poor to horrendous when De Bruyne slotted City's third goal.

The visitors broke at pace from a Chelsea attack, with one pass all that was required to send Raheem Sterling racing clear.

England forward Sterling checked his run in the box under pressure from Edouard Mendy, but still managed to whip a shot onto the post.

De Bruyne was first to the rebound to sweep home and put City 3-0 to the good, after just 34 minutes.

Chelsea limped to half-time without further concession, but only because Gundogan flicked a cute effort the wrong side of the post.

City's 3-0 interval lead looked to have left Lampard and the Blues as a whole in a state of shock and there was little improvement after the break.

Callum Hudson-Odoi added an injury time consolation.

Post a Comment

What do you think?

Previous Post Next Post