Chelsea inflicted Manchester City‘s first defeat of the season in a compelling contest at Stamford Bridge.
Strikers were conspicuous by their absence, with Chelsea’s Eden Hazard and City’s Raheem Sterling deployed in the ‘false nine’ position, and the hosts absorbed repeated pressure from Pep Guardiola‘s men before earning a 2-0 win.
Infrequent goalscorer N’Golo Kante gave Chelsea the lead on the stroke of half-time, completing a devastating counter-attack by scoring with the Blues’ first shot of the game, and David Luiz headed in a second 12 minutes from time.
City had been unbeaten in 21 games, since April’s defeat in the Manchester derby, and now sit a point behind Liverpool. Chelsea are third, eight points behind Liverpool. Re-live the action below:
↵
Good morning and welcome to The Independent's live coverage of today's headline Premier League encounter between Chelsea and leaders Manchester City, brought to you from Stamford Bridge.
With the match due to kick-off at 5:30pm, there's plenty of time to follow the latest news ahead of the teams being released at 4:30pm, where will begin our full build-up towards the match.
But until then, take a read of Jack Pitt-Brooke's big match preview here:
TEAM NEWS: ARSENAL VS HUDDERSFIELD
TEAM NEWS: BURNLEY VS BRIGHTON
TEAM NEWS: CARDIFF VS SOUTHAMPTON
TEAM NEWS: MANCHESTER UNITED VS FULHAM
TEAM NEWS: WEST HAM VS CRYSTAL PALACE
TEAM NEWS: CHELSEA VS MANCHESTER CITY
Evening all.
What do we make of those two starting lineups then?
No centre-forwards in sight. Matching 4-3-3's with a false nine? This should be fun...
Contrasting midweek fortunes for these two. Manchester City continued their unbeaten season with an away win at Vicarage Road, but for Chelsea the 2-1 defeat to Wolves was particularly disappointing as they slip out of the title race.
Liverpool's win at Bournemouth earlier took them top, though Manchester City would reclaim that spot with even a draw.
Chelsea are, realistically, now jostling for position in the top four with Arsenal and Tottenham. It is a huge game, and interesting that both managers have opted to twist rather than stick with novel frontlines.
Out of the tunnel emerge the two sets of players.
Kick off is imminent.
1 minute
Antonio Rudiger is nearly in some early bother pursued by Raheem Sterling, but manages to find Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Eden Hazard as the false nine for Chelsea, Sterling for City.
3 minutes
Pressing early on from Chelsea, forcing Manchester City to play the ball around in their own box, but the visitors do that competently, allowing Aymeric Laporte to stride away in comfort with the shackles of the press broken.
Early possession all with City.
5 minutes
Antonio Rudiger's long ball is won by Eden Hazard, an unconventional target man, but there is no-one moving into the space Hazard vacated to compete with Fernandinho.
7 minutes
A shimmy from Eden Hazard beats Bernardo Silva and draws Fabian Delph into a challenge.
The Belgian tumbles over Delph's outstretched leg. A free kick 25 yards out, wide on the right...
Aymeric Laporte rises under little pressure and heads it away.
8 minutes
Chance!
It is a superb challenge from Fernandinho to free Manchester City on the counter attack.
Raheem Sterling finds David Silva overlapping, and the Spaniard returns it to Sterling on the bounce. He should really do better with his six-yard half-volley, which is underpowered and gathered simply by Kepa Arrizabalaga.
10 minutes
City well on top. Sterling squanders another chance with a weak pass with two men outside him.
Bernardo Silva's cross is then cleared but Aymeric Laporte nearly latches on to David Silva's header back into the mixer. Kepa is again there to smother, but Chelsea look vulnerable.
