Champs Man City Down Chelsea For 12th Straight Win
22 May, 2023
Manchester City celebrated their Premier League triumph with a 1-0 win over Chelsea on Sunday evening.
Premier League
Result: Manchester City 1-0 Chelsea
Date: 21 May 2023
Venue: Etihad Stadium
Man City made wholesale changes to the side that hammered Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League in midweek, as Manuel Akanji and Kyle Walker were the only survivors, with a couple of youngsters alongside the recalls for Riyad Mahrez, Phil Foden and Julian Alvarez.
Chelsea, meanwhile, switched five positions from their draw against Nottingham Forest, as Raheem Sterling, Kai Havertz, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Cesar Azpilicueta and goalkeeper Kepa were brought back. Pep Guardiola's charges had a perfect start after Alvarez gave them the lead on 12 minutes with a low drive towards the bottom corner after an offload by Cole Palmer.
The Citizens had the momentum going forward and almost went 2-0 up on 24 minutes after Palmer's shot from angle, following a through ball by Foden, was cleared off the line by Trevoh Chalobah.
The Blues started to get into the game after the half-hour mark and Sterling had a big chance nine minutes before the break after going clear on goal but his low shot was kept out by the trailing leg of goalkeeper Stefan Ortega.
Frank Lampard's troops also seized their momentum as Conor Gallagher came close to levelling matters a couple of minutes later with a header at the back post that came off the post.
The game was open in the early stages of the second stanza but City came the closest to doubling their lead just before the hour-mark as Kalvin Phillips had a header that came off the base of the post.
In a lively pace to the game, Sterling thought he had equalised on 65 minutes after he squeezed a shot past the legs of Ortega but John Stones recovered and cleared his effort off the line.
City, however, took control of the encounter after that and Alvarez found the back of the net 19 minutes before time with a tap-in from a square pass by Mahrez but the goal was disallowed by the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) for a handball by the Algerian.
Guardiola brightened the mood of the home fans as he added star quality with two changes in the closing stages, as Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne were introduced in places of Mahrez and Sergio Gomez respectively.
City, however, slowed down the tempo of the game and were comfortable in the tail end as they survived some scares from Chelsea's counter-attacks and celebrated their trophy with a win.
Source: www.snl24.com
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