With the reigning Premier league champions coming to town, Graham Potter’s men sought to devise a plan to stop the visitors from recording a forth straight defeat at the hands of the men from the blue side of Manchester. Despite the resilient effort, Chelsea fell at the hands of a Riyad Mahrez goal as City took the points back to Manchester.
Kovaciç-Zakaria pivot, way to go?
Despite an average showing against Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest, Graham Potter granted a third straight Premier league start to Dennis Zakaria who partnered Mateo Kovaciç this time around as the double pivot in Chelsea’s midfield. The pair starting together for the first time in the premier league this season kept City at bay for most part of the first half and did stand up tall while City piled on more pressure in the second half.
Without the ball, both players were tasked with blocking the “half-space” gaps on both the RHS & LHS of the defensive midfield area. The duos’ immense work-rate was key to limiting City to very few clear chances as Pep’s side resorted to overloading the flanks and putting dangerous balls into the box.
Kovaciç’s calmness on the ball (86% pass accuracy) was key to playing out of City’s high press as he often found spaces to pick a pass through City’s midfield while Zakaria’s strength and dribbling (100% dribbling accuracy) enabled him beat City’s high pressure as well which amounted to some dangerous moments for the Blues.
When out of possession, both worked as hard as they could to retrieve possession as Zakaria had 6 recoveries and a 50% success rate in the ground duels he contested while his partner, Kovaciç recorded a 71% success rate in ground duels and recovered the ball 6 times as well. With both players perfectly complementing themselves, it remains to be seen what duo Graham Potter sticks with in the immediate future with Kante still a long term absentee.
Injuries Sting Hard On Blues :
A team already dealing with as many as 8 first team player’s absence, it was a horrifying start to the game for Graham Potter as he saw two attackers leave the pitch with injuries before the half hour mark.
Sterling seemed to have pulled a hamstring while Pulisic suffered what looked like an ankle injury after colliding with John Stones in the penalty area.
With those two additional players joining the set of players already sidelined, Potter now has a huge headache heading into the next weeks of the January transfer window. Having to constantly chop and change a stable team is no coach’s dream and this huge injury period seems to leave Potter in some sort of nightmare with crucial games coming in their numbers.
An already depleted attack faces the same City team this weekend in the Emirates’ FA Cup leaving Potter to having the luxury of being to call onto only Kai, Aubameyang and Ziyech as the recognised first team attackers. A huge dilemma awaits Potter on Sunday.
Carney Leaves An Impression :
Signed from fellow Premier League side Aston Villa, Carney Chukwuemeka has struggled for game time this season due to both illness and selection choices from the coaches. A couple of cameos in the League has often shown indication of good things to come from the youngster and a brilliant showing coming off the bench here as a first half sub would have done his confidence a lot of good.
The boyhood Chelsea fan showed glimpses of why Chelsea splashed out 15 million pounds for his signature in the summer. Close control, the ability to drive with the ball from midfield and his strength were all on display today as the 19 year-old showed the Stamford Bridge faithfuls of what is to come after he nearly got his first goal for the club he supported right from childhood.
Carney created one chance, had two shots(one of which struck the post) in tonight’s impressive outing with huge promises of many good things still to come.
Kai slowly but surely returning to form ?
Coming off the back of a goal and an assist in his last home game, Kai Havertz was looking to have another huge say on the game against City. Starting off slightly behind the striker here, Havertz was charged to make clever runs behind the City midfield and pick up brilliant positions in the attacking third to help progression from the defence to the attack.
Making himself available for passes from deep, Havertz showed signs of huge improvements with his first touches while under pressure and also his strength to hold off certain challenges. With 4 chances created, Kai had the most chances created and registered one shot while also working hard as usual to recover the ball on 7 occasions. With the flurry of injuries to Potter’s attacking options, Potter will be hoping Kai returns to his best form as soon as possible.
Man of the match : Dennis Zakaria – 7/10.
Next up for Chelsea is the same opponents Manchester City, but this time in the Emirates’ FA Cup on Sunday.
