And with that, I’m done. It’s been a blast. Bye!
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On Sky, Jamie Redknapp describes Chelsea’s performance as “a crime against football”. “I just felt they didn’t really want to play. They’re better than that, much better than that. Chelsea should just have given them the three points before the game started.”
The last time a title-winning Chelsea team lost away to the eventual champions, they sacked their title-winning manager. Conte’s departure has seemed inevitable for some time, but his team’s performance here was a particularly miserable reflection of his current standing.
902 - Manchester City today completed more passes than any other team has managed in a single Premier League game (since 2003-04). Distributed.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 4, 2018
“We played like a team battling relegation, happy with a 1-0 defeat to preserve our goal difference,” writes Lee Madden.
@Simon_Burnton incredibly disappointing. To see the defending champions play so incredibly negatively in a big away game is a shame. We played like a team battling against relegation happy with a one nil defeat to preserve our goal difference. @ChelseaFC @bbcfivelive @bbc5live
— Lee Madden (@leemadden83) March 4, 2018
On the touchline, Pep Guardiola squeals with delight as the final whistle sounds, and those on the bench launch into a prolonged bout of high-fivery.
Final score: Manchester City 1-0 Chelsea
90+5 mins: It’s over, and Manchester City are just four wins from the title!
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90+4 mins: Nearly! The ball is rather clumsily worked into the area and along its edge, from where Alonso volleys just wide!
90+4 mins: One minute to play. Chelsea have an attacking throw-in and two strikers on the pitch. They couldn’t, surely?
90+2 mins: Sane has a shot from the edge of the area, but it’s high. A final substitution sees David Silva get a standing ovation, and Phil Foden come on.
90+1 mins: Chelsea cross the ball! Alonso centres it from the left, and it’s headed clear by Otamendi.
90+1 mins: There will be four minutes of stoppage time, or thereabouts.
90 mins: City have only had three shots on target, which reflects well on Chelsea. They, however, haven’t had any.
89 mins: Morata finally gets his chance – about 90 seconds of it – coming on for Hazard.
88 mins: Suddenly Chelsea are playing with a front three, with Giroud in the middle and Emerson and Hazard on either side.
87 mins: And another City change, Danilo coming on for Zinchenko.
84 mins: Sergio Aguero’s race is run. He peels off his gloves and shoves them, strangely, into his mouth as he comes off, and Gabriel Jesus comes on.
84 mins: Chelsea have a throw-in! Sure, it’s not quite a corner, but it’s near City’s penalty area, and it’s something. Matt Loten disagrees with Matt Case: “As he notes, selling Costa and Matic was the primary factor behind Chelsea’s decline; neither of those moves were decided by finances,” he writes. “They were caused by Conte’s poor man-management, and the money they subsequently spent could have augmented the squad quite nicely, but instead they spread it across a number of inadequate squad players, instead of a few top-quality enhancements to an already impressive starting XI. City and Chelsea have swapped places not because of mismatched finances, but because of mismatched transfer policies. City identified their weaknesses and rectified them; Chelsea did not.”
82 mins: Another substitution from Chelsea: Emerson comes on for Pedro. Meanwhile Morata, who was also on the touchline ready to come on, is sent back to the bench.
81 mins: Giroud wins a header! It’s a long ball, and Giroud rises with Otamendi and heads it straight out of play.
81 mins: Fabregas’s corner goes straight to Gundogan, protecting the near post, who clears.
80 mins: Chelsea have a corner! Pedro’s cross is charged down, and a corner kick is theirs!
80 mins: De Bruyne has the ball on the edge of the area, with David Silva and Sane to his left and Aguero to his right. He could and perhaps should have shot, but instead overhits his pass to Aguero and the chance is lost.
79 mins: Chelsea make a change, taking off Willian and bringing on Giroud.
78 mins: The ball is played down the left by Sane, who controls on his chest, turns away from the byline and rides a desperate and poor challenge from an emphatically outfoxed Moses, before crossing to nobody in particular.
76 mins: “It’s just unacceptable this from Chelsea. Absolutely unacceptable,” rages Gary Neville. David Silva wins the ball in a congested midfield, and instead of trying to take it back again Chelsea’s five and four immediately drop 20 yards further back. Silva, from being surrounded by dark blue shirts, just stands totally still and ends up with nobody anywhere near him.
74 mins: Chelsea keep winning the ball off City on the edge of their area, and then giving it back again almost immediately.
71 mins: This half is very much like the first, only with City no longer needing to score. The idea that Bernardo Silva’s opener would bring Chelsea out of their shell very much underestimated the size of Chelsea’s shell.
68 mins: A lovely pass down the right finds Bernardo Silva, but his cross is overhit. “I think we should be careful about Man City’s dominance,” writes Matt Cast. “Last season Chelsea got the second highest points total in Premier League history with the most wins ever in a Premier League season and a formation that left many opponents baffled. This season they’ve been much less dominant, to say the least, so a lot can change from one season to another. Of course losing Costa and Matic has been crucial and loss of key players is less likely for City, given their finances. This just underlines the fact that Guardiola, De Bruyne etc are not the key factors behind City’s dominance – it’s the money.” It’s not just the money, to be fair – Guardiola’s coaching is clearly having a massive effect both on individual players and the team as a whole (though of course it was money that brought him to Manchester).
65 mins: Chelsea commit some numbers forward, which allows City to counter-attack. De Bruyne runs 50 yards with the ball, cuts in from the right, could perhaps have passed to David Silva but ends up in the area himself, where he falls over.
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64 mins: Sane crosses nicely from the left, and Christensen sticks out a leg at the near post. He could have deflected the ball anywhere, but it ends up in Courtois’ gloves.
62 mins: Since the goal Chelsea have changed neither personnel nor shape. They have attacked in decent numbers at least once, but the pattern of the game has not changed.
59 mins: From the corner the ball is swung to Laporte, who has the chance to volley in a second, but he swings his right foot at the ball and misses it entirely.
58 mins: From a free kick De Bruyne crosses low to Aguero, who lays the ball back to David Silva, whose shot from the edge of the area is deflected wide.
57 mins: Rudiger is booked for persistent foul play.
55 mins: “As a Bristol City fan, I went to both legs of our Carabao Cup and saw us giving them a real battle both times,” writes Steven Hughes. “You’ve got to give Man City something to think about and put some doubt in their minds to have any chance at all.” There was a time back in January, when Bristol City played so well at the Etihad and then Manchester City went to Anfield and lost, that it seemed that opponents had discovered a new, brighter, more offensive method of combating this team. It seems it was a false dawn.
54 mins: Chelsea attack, and Moses overlaps beyond Willian, who has taken Zinchenko out of position, and is picked out. He has space, and team-mates inside him, but blasts a shot wide of the near post.
52 mins: Gary Neville is angry again. “I said it about Arsenal last week, walking. It’s embarrassing. They’re letting Man City play. They’re like manikins,” he says. “There’s a distinction between showing City respect and just resigning before the game. It’s painful to watch, this.” Talking of which, here’s an email from Matt Loten. “I’m a big Gary Neville fan, but I hope the Hazard rant, so soon after the Arsenal rant, isn’t a sign of things to come. He’s 20 years too young to become a parody of himself already.”
48 mins: That should surely change the match for the better, unless Chelsea are here for nothing more than damage limitation.
GOAL! Man City 1-0 Chelsea (Bernardo Silva, 46 mins)
Within 40 seconds of the restart, City have the lead! A long ball over the defence is poorly defended by Chistensen and David Silva takes possession. He crosses low and it flies through to Bernardo Silva, who prods into the ground and sends the ball bouncing in!
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46 mins: Peeeeeep! They’re off! Again!
Anyway, the players are back out.
I hope and believe that in the summer other teams will regroup and launch into next season with refreshed ambition, but at the moment almost every opponent reacts to City’s excellence by abandoning all attacking intent, making for games with little entertainment and – particularly when the team doing the abandoning has the recent history and resources of Chelsea – making themselves appear cowardly. It is not enjoyable to watch, but then one-sided contests in which City outplay opponents who weaken their defensive efforts by actually attacking are not really rewarding either. Liverpool offer a decent blueprint for an alternative option, but it is one that is completely foreign to the other managers of top six clubs.
@Simon_Burnton it is scary to see the domination of city - They are effortlessly becoming the Bayern of premier league
— krishna moorthy (@vkmagus) March 4, 2018
Half time: Manchester City 0-0 Chelsea
45+2 mins: That is the end of the half. Chelsea have been depressingly lacking in adventure and ambition, but at the end of it they’re not losing, so job done.
45+1 mins: Rudiger has the ball, 15 yards outside his penalty area. He looks up, assesses his options, and then decides he hasn’t got any and launches the ball downfield to Ederson.
45+1 mins: There will be one minute of stoppage time.
42 mins: Chelsea win a corner kick! Pedro goes on a nice jinking run into the area, on the left, and the ball eventually goes behind. Nothing comes of it, but that is still Chelsea’s best attacking moment of the half.
41 mins: There’s a pause while the referee speaks to Rudiger about a foul, and City prepare to take a free kick. Then De Bruyne slides it to the feet of Aguero, running clear of the Chelsea defence, but he ran too soon, and is offside.
This is awful from Chelsea! 💤
— Don Hutchison (@donhutch4) March 4, 2018
40 mins: Moses has the ball on the right touchline, level with the edge of the area. He looks up, he assesses his options, then he decides he doesn’t really have any, and launches the ball up the pitch to Ederson.
37 mins: Gary Neville on Sky has launched into another furious rant, and Chelsea have provoked it. Eden Hazard’s general air of disinterest has irked him, and he then calls the idea of launching a long throw in his direction “hopelessly defeatist”.
36 mins: Touches so far: David Silva 50; Eden Hazard 8.
35 mins: Willian, Chelsea’s best/only decent attacking player, starts a counter, but as soon as the ball leaves his boot it becomes hopelessly imprecise, and ends with a stretching Pedro hitting a cross straight to Ederson.
33 mins: Another lovely run from Sane ends with a pass across the edge of the area. David Silva dummies it and it runs to Bernardo Silva, in space on the right of the area, but his first-time shot is hopeless, and flies both high and wide.
31 mins: Willian gets down the right, and is taken out by Otamendi. The referee, standing not five yards away, waves play on, bizarrely.
30 mins: I’m loving the old-fashioned substitute-warming techniques being employed by City today:
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27 mins: Cleared off the line! From a free kick wide on the right De Bruyne swings in a cross and Sane, beyond the far post, controls it brilliantly, checks onto his right foot and cracks a low, hard shot at goal that beats Courtois but picks out Azpilicueta, who has anticipated the situation brilliantly and gets in the way.
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24 mins: Zinchenko has been booked, for an absurd sliding tackle on Moses which took out the player about 20 minutes after the ball had gone. Only a total absence of stud-on-flesh contact kept him on the pitch there.
24 mins: Chelsea attack! Willian gets down the right and slams in a low cross, which is cleared.
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23 mins: Without the ball Chelsea are playing with a 5-4-1, with the five on the edge of their area and the four about five yards ahead of them, while a lonely Hazard strolls about towards the halfway line. They have ceded four-fifths of the pitch to City, and are worrying only about the final 35 yards of it.
20 mins: Sane runs off the left wing and into the area before tapping to Aguero, who gets the ball stuck between his feet and has to turn away from goal before passing to Bernardo Silva, who tries a left-foot curler similar to the one that ended in the back of the net against Arsenal on Thursday, but this one ends on top of the net.
18 mins: A better pass from Fabregas, forward this time, forces Ederson to sprint from his area and clumsily bundle the ball out of play for a throw-in.
16 mins: City have had 80% of possession so far, and are absolutely dominant. De Bruyne lifts the ball over the defence to Sane, who attempts an extravagant first-time shot from the left side of the area, which goes well wide.
13 mins: A loose pass from Fabregas plays Chelsea into trouble, is intercepted by Sane and reaches Aguero, but he tries to run around the perimeter of the six-yard line and then shoots into a thicket of defending legs.
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11 mins: A chance! A fine exchange of passes ends with David Silva getting to the byline again, and his low cross finds Sane, but he’s surprised that it’s done so, isn’t quite ready to shoot, and the ball is deflected wide.
8 mins: Willian runs into Zinchenko’s leg, and goes over. He eventually rises, without medical attention.
7 mins: Chelsea are yet to show much by way of attacking ambition, but they are defending alertly and in numbers.
4 mins: Nothing comes from the corner, but he ball remains in Chelsea’s half. David Silva then moves silkily into and through the visitors’ penalty area, reaches the byline and then crosses too close to Courtois.
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3 mins: City ping some passes about, and then De Bruyne tries to pass to Aguero in the area, but a defender gets there first and boots the ball into space, and also behind.
1 min: Peeeeep! Chelsea get the match started.
Apparently the unwell Kante is currently “lying down in the team bus”.
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And now they’re out!
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The Etihad has something of a jazzy, mirrored tunnel, allowing some of their more moneyed supporters the chance to ogle the players before everyone else can. And that is what they are currently doing.
Antonio Conte has been speaking about Davide Astori, who he coached when he was in charge of Italy’s national team:
This is a tragedy. This news really, it hurt me, and it’s very difficult in this moment to find the right words for the family. I had him with the national team. I repeat, it is very hard at this moment to speak about this tragedy. He was a fantastic guy, he was a great player but especially a fantastic guy. I stay really close to his family at this moment. He was only 31, and it’s very difficult to explain this situation.
Pep Guardiola speaks, briefly:
My players know, they play many times against Chelsea and they know how good they are. All their people in front they are so dangerous one against one, Cesc is a master at seeing the balls. They’re the last champions, so they deserve all the credit.
Today’s first Premier League game is over, and Brighton have beaten Arsenal 2-1. It is Arsenal’s fourth successive Premier League defeat, a fourth in succession in all competitions, and takes Brighton – undefeated in five top-flight matches now – into the top 10, to 34 points and the verge of Premier League survival (though they must still play Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool and Tottenham). Arsenal are eight points behind Chelsea, 13 points from the top four, and five ahead of Burnley.
Kante’s absence will be extremely debilitating for Chelsea, for this of all matches; City have other midfielders of great ability, but none with his particular skillset. Meanwhile replacing a target man with another fiddly little forward, with Eden Hazard presumably doing his false nine thing, suggests an intention to fight fire with fire. City, however, have particularly impressive fire.
City bring in Alexander Zinchenko and Aymeric Laporte and shuffle Vincent Kompany and Danilo to the bench; Chelsea must do without the unwell Ngolo Kante and leave Alvaro Morata on the bench, with Cesc Fabregas and Pedro coming into the starting XI.
The teams!
Hello world!
Well, there’s no time for beating around the bush: I have the teams, and I will give them to you:
Man City: Ederson, Walker, Otamendi, Laporte, Zinchenko, De Bruyne, Gundogan, Silva, Bernardo Silva, Aguero, Sane. Subs: Bravo, Danilo, Kompany, Stones, Gabriel Jesus, Toure, Foden.
Chelsea: Courtois, Azpilicueta, Christensen, Rudiger, Moses, Fabregas, Drinkwater, Alonso, Willian, Hazard, Pedro. Subs: Chalobah, Caballero, Morata, Giroud, Zappacosta, Cahill, Emerson.
Referee: Michael Oliver.
Let's go! 🙌
— Manchester City (@ManCity) March 4, 2018
City XI | Ederson, Walker, Laporte, Otamendi, Zinchenko, Gundogan, Bernardo, Sane, Silva (c), De Bruyne, Aguero
Subs | Bravo, Stones, Kompany, Danilo, Jesus, Yaya Toure, Foden
Presented by @HAYSWorldwide pic.twitter.com/KJgKsHa8jG
Chelsea team: Courtois; Azpilicueta (c), Christensen, Rudiger; Moses, Fabregas, Drinkwater, Alonso; Willian, Hazard, Pedro.
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) March 4, 2018
Subs: Caballero, Cahill, Zappacosta, Emerson, Chalobah, Giroud, Morata. #MCICHE pic.twitter.com/Ws29PUw4ay
Simon will be here soon. Here’s our match preview:
A final 10-game title-procession for Manchester City has an apt beginning with the visit of the champions, Chelsea. Defeat Antonio Conte’s side and Pep Guardiola’s team will require a maximum 12 more points to be crowned champions for a fifth time. Given City have dropped nine points all season and lost only once in the league under Guardiola, the odds are against Chelsea. Jamie Jackson
