****Official City vs Chavs Muppets

[Bear60]

One done two to go Cmon City

[Mase]

Awh Gabby has said he’s expecting his first child as well as smashing the winner today.

[patrickblue]

This victory also brings bad memories, this is what happens when you play your best 11. Reminds of the champions League final fuck up

He has to know that playing sterling in the starting lineup in important games has to come to an end.

.

That's the worrying thing though. We all thought he'd got the message in the last half of last season, then he goes and plays him in the CL final.

[carl_feedthegoat]

This victory also brings bad memories, this is what happens when you play your best 11. Reminds of the champions League final fuck up

He has to know that playing sterling in the starting lineup in important games has to come to an end.

.

That's the worrying thing though. We all thought he'd got the message in the last half of last season, then he goes and plays him in the CL final.

I don’t know mate , this is why I go berserk when I see him in the starting line up - I just don’t get it .

Sterling has been great for us in the past but I really think he needs a new adventure and he can go with his head held high , especially after what he’s done for us in the past .

Football moves on and so should we .

[Beefymcfc]

Can we talk about Rüdiger. The cunt tried to injure a number of our players today! I hope is career gets ended soon.

I noted he’s got that Harry Kane thing down to a tee, taking out players when they are in the air.

[sheblue]

Can we talk about Rüdiger. The cunt tried to injure a number of our players today! I hope is career gets ended soon.

I noted he’s got that Harry Kane thing down to a tee, taking out players when they are in the air.

Have had the same opinion for a long time now. He is a dirty bastard. I absolutely hate him, scum footballer who really tries to hurt people.

[zuricity]

Rüdiger can't keep getting away with this behaviour. He could easily have seen red for his attacks yesterday.

Oh , and did Kante fall off the wing ? Missing yesteday.

[Outcast]

Can we talk about Rüdiger. The cunt tried to injure a number of our players today! I hope is career gets ended soon.

I noted he’s got that Harry Kane thing down to a tee, taking out players when they are in the air.

Have had the same opinion for a long time now. He is a dirty bastard. I absolutely hate him, scum footballer who really tries to hurt people.

We need Nigel de Jong back to put him in his place. Mind you Fern is more than capable sorting him out

[PeterParker]

Can we talk about Rüdiger. The cunt tried to injure a number of our players today! I hope is career gets ended soon.

I noted he’s got that Harry Kane thing down to a tee, taking out players when they are in the air.

Have had the same opinion for a long time now. He is a dirty bastard. I absolutely hate him, scum footballer who really tries to hurt people.

We need Nigel de Jong back to put him in his place. Mind you Fern is more than capable sorting him out

Fern is the only player I've seen that elbowed Diego Costa a few years ago and did this. You do not mess with Fern.

[Mase]

We going to ignore the fact Grealish was punched (and possibly sexually assaulted). Not the first time Spapilicueta has done it to him.

Watch on youtube.com

[salford city]

We going to ignore the fact Grealish was punched (and possibly sexually assaulted). Not the first time Spapilicueta has done it to him.

Watch on youtube.com

Thought Grealish was off it in the first half but much better in the 2nd half causing azpil. all kinds of trouble and thought the longer the game went on, the more likely he was to get a red card top stuff from Jack took the abuse and laughed it off

[dazby]

A strange experience watching that game. 4 City fans v 60 Chelsea rent boys at a pub.

I drove home lamenting the Chumps League final.

Nothing else.

[PeterParker]

We going to ignore the fact Grealish was punched (and possibly sexually assaulted). Not the first time Spapilicueta has done it to him.

Watch on youtube.com

The commentator mentioned they have a beef from the last game of the past season when Jackie got him sent off.

[Mase]

We going to ignore the fact Grealish was punched (and possibly sexually assaulted). Not the first time Spapilicueta has done it to him.

Watch on youtube.com

The commentator mentioned they have a beef from the last game of the past season when Jackie got him sent off.

Yeah, he did get a fist in the face to be fair to Jack

[johnny crossan]

Chelsea 0-1 Manchester City: Pep Guardiola gets his tactics right in statement victory

Gabriel Jesus celebrates his goal for Manchester City against Chelsea
By Adam Crafton and Sam Lee Sept 25, 2021 90
Gabriel Jesus’ second-half goal saw Manchester City beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, as Pep Guardiola became the first manager to get the better of Thomas Tuchel this season.

As expected, it was a tense, tactical battle between two of the best managers working in football today — but City came out on top to move level on points with the side that beat them in last season’s Champions League final in Porto.

Here, The Athletic’s Adam Crafton and Sam Lee dissect the game’s key talking points…

What had both sides learned from the Champions League final?

Adam Crafton: Chelsea appeared to approach this match rather differently to the Champions League final. This was enforced, to a certain extent, by the absence of Mason Mount to injury, while Romelu Lukaku’s arrival has also altered the nature of Chelsea’s setup in these big head-to-heads. Without Mount, Thomas Tuchel also dropped Champions League matchwinner Kai Havertz to the bench and made the decision to start Timo Werner, almost in a front two, alongside Lukaku.

Tuchel appeared concerned by controlling the midfield in a defensive sense, employing three defensive-minded midfielders in Mateo Kovacic, N’Golo Kante and Jorginho. There appeared to be sense in this plan, as Chelsea sought to frustrate their opponents, stay in the game and back themselves to be more clinical than City when their chances came along.

As it transpired, though, this was a rare occasion when Tuchel’s plan backfired.

Chelsea were penned in by City’s press and failed to connect their midfield with forward players, lacking the movement and wit of Mount to break between the lines. Lukaku in particular struggled in the first half to get into the game, touching the ball only three times in the first half-hour. Chelsea, who cause opponents major issues from the wings at their best, struggled to build attacks or get their wing-backs high up the pitch, although they were further undermined by losing Reece James to injury.


Reece James suffered a first-half injury (Photo: Getty Images)
Sam Lee: The majority of changes were because of Chelsea’s approach to the match, as they were much more defensive and passive, without the players probing between the lines that they had in Porto.

There were also a few more specific tactical details that City corrected without doing anything too drastic, like changing to a back three.

In the final, City had real problems preventing Chelsea from playing out because City’s front three pressed Chelsea’s back three, and City’s full-backs pushed up high to engage Chelsea’s wing-backs. That left a lot of space in behind for Chelsea to exploit, which was also the case at Wembley in the FA Cup semi-final.

On Saturday, City pressed in the same way. This would in theory leave the same problems, but on City’s right, Bernardo Silva filled those spaces and stopped Mateo Kovacic from taking advantage. City’s press was so much more effective in the first place, however, and they made it much harder for Chelsea to get a foothold in the game until Jesus’ goal, which changed the flow completely and forced Tuchel to take Kante off and replace him with Havertz.

Outstanding individual performances also helped, with Rodri playing very well in his holding midfield role. By the end Bernardo Silva joined him and also did excellently, as City held on to win.

Was this Manchester City’s best performance of the season?

Lee: It was one of their best performances in a long time, if we are considering the return of fans and those kind of factors. A lot of the talk before the game was not just about City losing to Chelsea, but losing against all Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain and Liverpool. This performance is a reminder — and it should never have been needed — that City are a phenomenal side, with a great manager and great players.

Chelsea’s approach did play a huge part in the result but once they came out of their shell after Jesus’ goal, City played superbly in a different manner, most notably with some classic, old-school defending inside their own box.

“We were ourselves,” Guardiola told BT Sport afterwards, “and it is an exceptional team. We try to go and do our (own) game and that makes me proud, a little bit for myself but especially for the whole club.”

City could — and perhaps should — have scored more than once, which has long been an area of concern and will probably continue to be all season. But even had Chelsea nicked an equaliser at the end, this would still have been regarded as one of City’s best performances in a long time, because they showed so many facets of their game, from organisation to execution, whether pressing high or digging in inside their own box.

So … is this now the way to play against Chelsea?

Crafton: Arguably yes, but good luck finding many teams as well-coached as City and who keep the ball with the same levels of assurance. There will also not be too many games where Chelsea are without Mount and set up in such a defensive manner.

This does not, therefore, feel like a prototype for future occasions as Chelsea’s approach will likely be different but it does remind opponents that Chelsea are not impregnable.

How well did Lukaku and Werner work together?

Crafton: Not particularly well. But that assessment also feels a little unfair owing to the distance between Chelsea’s midfield and attack, which meant their forwards were not given too many opportunities.

There were occasions when Werner broke in behind the City offside trap and a couple of times Lukaku rolled his opponents to get Chelsea up the field, but City’s control of the game was such that there were few chances for Lukaku and Werner to directly dovetail.

So … what does this tell us about the title hopes of these two teams?

Crafton: Chelsea have had a testing start to the new season and have already faced Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and now Manchester City. So they should be pleased with their overall position.

What it does tell us, however, is that Chelsea can be spooked by opponents and their coach does not find the correct answers to every scenario.

Manchester City celebrate their goal (Photo: Getty Images)
Lee: That City will be in the conversation for sure.

Maybe some problems will creep in over the season. That can happen when you’re defending a title. Complacency could set in, or maybe City will drop points because they continue to miss too many chances. They could be hit by bad luck, or maybe Chelsea or Liverpool will set too much of a pace to keep up with.

But maybe City will do what they did in the 2018-19 season and play consistently well throughout the campaign, battling and scrapping for every point even when they can’t coast to victories. After just six games it’s too early to tell if they will be able to pull that off. But we know at least that they are an excellent side and are still capable of statement victories like this.

[zuricity]

^^^^^^^^

Tosh, even MOTD had it right, Five midfielders pushing their defense when not in possession. So much speculative stuff there .

There are players in the team like Foden and Bernie who run and attack the oppositions defense to make them play the ball. Even , at time win it back. That is why we are dominating.

Doesn't always work that way but we win more than we draw or even lose.

[johnny crossan]

a bit of light but profusely illustrated tactical analysis from Michael Cox courtesy of The Athletic

One of the great Guardiola pressing masterclasses – a tactical breakdown of how Man City beat Chelsea

Michael Cox 3h ago 14

For the neutral, Saturday’s clash between Chelsea and Manchester City was something of a disappointment. Whereas we might have expected the two title favourites to take the game to one another and create an enthralling high-tempo contest, this was a slow-burning game with few clear-cut goalscoring chances.

The culprits, in terms of making the game less exciting than anticipated, were clearly Chelsea. Thomas Tuchel used a 3-5-2 formation — the system he successfully turned to midway through last weekend’s victory over Tottenham Hotspur — and Chelsea desperately lacked creativity or connections between midfield and attack. Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner remained in centre-forward positions but received little service.

For that, though, Manchester City deserve enormous credit. From the outset, their pressing was highly aggressive and extremely cohesive. As a result, it was excellent at regaining possession quickly. The performance in the first half was particularly impressive in this respect, and it was notable how literally every player on the Manchester City side was responsible for regaining possession. Here’s how it worked, from front to back.

The player handed the job of leading the line was Phil Foden. His primary responsibility was starting City’s press, generally by making angled runs towards Chelsea’s wide centre-backs to direct the play in one direction, prevent switches of play across the defence, and allow the players behind him to concentrate on applying pressure towards one flank.

Here, for example, having found himself deep trying to collect an unsuccessful long ball, he arcs his run to pressure Cesar Azpilicueta from the side. That was his job, and the players behind were the ball-winners.


https://cdn.theathletic.com/app/uploads ... 6/B2-2.png

The three players immediately behind in City’s 4-2-3-1 were, from left to right, Jack Grealish, Kevin De Bruyne and Gabriel Jesus. Here, with Foden again pressing sideways to box Chelsea into the corner, is an example of Grealish waiting to pounce on Azpilicueta, with his tackle preventing Chelsea from passing up the touchline. This conceded a throw, from which City won possession again.




Kevin De Bruyne’s primary job was shutting down Jorginho. Here, as Marcos Alonso passes the ball sideways to the Italian, De Bruyne is pressuring from behind — Jorginho knows he’s coming and returns the ball to Alonso, but De Bruyne continues his sprint and goes flying into this challenge. The ball runs into midfield, where it is collected by Rodri, who puts City on the attack again.





Jesus’ work rate was also exceptional. This move features a De Bruyne pass towards him, but Andreas Christensen nips ahead and wins the ball, passing it to Mateo Kovacic — a rare chance for Chelsea to break.




But Jesus sprints after Kovacic, who is completely unaware of any pressure on him. Jesus simply puts his body between Kovacic and the ball, takes control of the situation and shrugs his opponent to the ground.



Bernardo Silva played an interesting midfield role, right of centre and broadly in a double pivot with Rodri.

Here, with Foden and Jesus pressing Christensen and Antonio Rudiger, Bernardo immediately knows that he should be running out towards Kovacic, who has pulled wide. A little like the Grealish example above, Bernardo doesn’t press too early — he doesn’t want to encourage Chelsea to kick long. He wants them to play their way into trouble. He waits, invites the pass to Kovacic, and then closes down at the right moment, winning the ball.




In the holding midfield role, Rodri provided arguably the best performance of his Manchester City career. In previous meetings against Chelsea, he’s often looked a little lost — but here he commanded the midfield zone brilliantly.

There were a variety of examples of him winning possession quickly, but this case is worth highlighting because it’s on N’Golo Kante — the elite tackler getting tackled — and because, as so often, the challenge resulted in the ball running to a City player, Grealish. That wasn’t a coincidence — City always found themselves with multiple men around the ball.




City’s full-backs played surprisingly aggressively here, content to leave the centre-backs defending two-on-two. Joao Cancelo set the tone for the pressing performance when he won the ball high up against Kante within the opening minute…



…while Kyle Walker pushed up to Alonso effectively, getting a foot in here and prodding the ball all the way over to Grealish.

With Lukaku peripheral, Chelsea’s only hope of getting the ball forward seemed to be passes into Werner. But City’s centre-backs were prepared. From this forward pass, Aymeric Laporte jumped in ahead of the German, intercepting the ball and playing it straight to Foden in space. From this quick regain of possession, Jesus had a half-chance.



Here’s a similar situation, but Ruben Dias was less comfortable trying to jump in front of his opponent. He lets Werner receive the ball, but then puts his body in the way to prevent him from turning effectively, and simply takes control of the ball.
[img]https://cdn.th[img]https://cdn.theathletic.com/app/uploads/2021/09/25154531/K2.png[/img]eathletic.com/app/uploads/2021/09/25154523/K1-1.png[/img]

Werner prefers balls played in behind, of course — that was presumably the reason for his surprise start. On the only occasion it seemed that City’s defenders might be troubled by his speed, their 11th player — goalkeeper Ederson — played his part by sweeping aggressively outside his box, in the left-back zone.




And in the final minute of the first half, there was one last example of what City were all about. Foden, the man setting the tempo for the press high, chased back and got a foot in on Jorginho, sending the ball loose, and then continued his run to collect the second ball and play it backwards to Cancelo. That summed it up.

https://cdn.theathletic.com/app/uploads ... 602/M2.png

And while this wasn’t a vintage Manchester City performance in possession — they created most of their best chances having gone 1-0 up through a fortunate deflected strike from Jesus — few would argue they didn’t deserve the victory. In constantly pressuring Chelsea in advanced positions, winning the ball quickly and getting themselves into good positions on the edge of the box, City were always more likely to get that type of break. Chelsea, in truth, barely competed.

[PeterParker]

Excellent that JC, thanks.

I wonder how much of that is the influence of Sacchi? Remember Pep reached out to him last year and the Italian told him the team lacks pressing. We did it close to perfection on our run last year.

[Dimples]

Excellent that JC, thanks.

I wonder how much of that is the influence of Sacchi? Remember Pep reached out to him last year and the Italian told him the team lacks pressing. We did it close to perfection on our run last year.

More to do with Lillo I think.
Since Lillo joined we became more solid and pragmatic. First we sorted out our defending (remember all those soft goals we conceded), got a lot of low scoring wins without conceding, then we got our attack working again.
The only blip was the CL final where we reverted to a pre Lilllo setup. IMO Lillo acts like Pep's conscience, keeping him in check and adding a touch of pragmatism to Pep's ideas.

[PeterParker]

Excellent that JC, thanks.

I wonder how much of that is the influence of Sacchi? Remember Pep reached out to him last year and the Italian told him the team lacks pressing. We did it close to perfection on our run last year.

More to do with Lillo I think.
Since Lillo joined we became more solid and pragmatic. First we sorted out our defending (remember all those soft goals we conceded), got a lot of low scoring wins without conceding, then we got our attack working again.
The only blip was the CL final where we reverted to a pre Lilllo setup. IMO Lillo acts like Pep's conscience, keeping him in check and adding a touch of pragmatism to Pep's ideas.

Indeed. He brings so much more than Arteta, imho. But all comes down to his experience.