MAN CITY are on the verge of the title already after a crucial win over Chelsea.
Kevin de Bruyne scored the only goal of the game, firing a sublime strike into the bottom corner.
They are now 13 points ahead of the Blues and 14 ahead of Liverpool, though have played two games more than the Reds.
JOIN SUN VEGAS: GET A FREE £10 BONUS WITH 100s OF GAMES TO PLAY AND NO DEPOSIT REQUIRED (Ts&Cs apply)
Thats all from the Etihad
There is rarely much to separate the two sides whenever Manchester City meet Chelsea in any competition but Kevin De Bruyne’s moment of magic has opened up a 13 point gap between the league leaders and the Blues.
Chelsea seemed to have turned up with a strategy of soaking up City pressure and hitting them on the counter, but when they did gain possession, the hosts were onto them on in a flash.
What was intriguing is that the Blues had the most clear cut opportunities with both of them dropping to Romelu Lukaku but it just wouldn’t happen for the Belgian attacker.
That is now six games without a win in the Premier League (W1 D4 L1) for Thomas Tuchel’s men which for all their talent is a dreadful run. Dare I say it but do they need some reinforcements?
Thank you for tuning in this afternoon folks, it has been a pleasure and make sure to stay vigilant as we bring you more blogs across the weekend.
Man City 1-0 Chelsea match report
Didn’t have the time to keep up with the match blog? Then panic no more because we have a very detailed match report with all the main talking points from the top of the leaderboards clash this afternoon.
CLICK HERE FOR THE MATCH REPORT
Up next for the Blues
Chelsea can’t afford to dwell on this loss for too long because they take a trip to the seaside in three days’ time where they’ll be facing Brighton at the Amex Stadium which won’t be a stroll on the beach.
Thomas Tuchel’s side will then be spending a lot of their February contesting in cup competitions because the Blues have a favourable home tie against Plymouth Argyle in the FA Cup fourth round followed by a Club World Cup semi-final away to either Al Hilal, Al Jazira or Auckland City.
But the two huge encounters in Chelsea’s run of fixtures that they will be more personal to them in terms of status are the London derbies.
They play Spurs for the third time in under three weeks on the 23rd of January and they travel south of the river to battle with Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on the 19th of February.
Round the corner for City
Pep’s men have six days to enjoy that victory before they travel to St.Mary’s where Southampton will be rolling out the red carpet for them.
City then have two consecutive home fixtures against two different opposition from the capital; Fulham in the fourth round of the FA Cup and then Premier League freshmen Brentford in a league clash four days later.
Shortly after that, the reigning champions will be hoping to build up some momentum on their trip at Carrow Road where they will be taking on Norwich because that match is followed by the first leg of their Champions League round of 16 tie against 19x Primeira Liga champions Sporting CP.
An updated Premier League table
This is why Thomas Tuchel is so frustrated with the result because the loss against Manchester City puts them 13 points off the pace with 16 games left to play.
Stranger things have happened in football so it’s not all over for the Blues but no team has led by that kind of a margin at this stage of the season and not gone on to clinch the title.
Credit: premierleague.com Thomas Tuchel gives his verdict
The Chelsea gaffer gave a frustrated post-match interview as he spoke to Des Kelly about why his team deserved a draw and how mathematically it is not impossible for City to be caught but it is highly unlikely.
I think we deserved a draw and I think we defended very, very well. There were not a lot of big chances, one in the first half from a big mistake from us.
We had chances so performances wise this was ok given the fact that we had to change our back three again.
Defensive wise, for the commitment I am absolutely ok with that performance. I think we deserved to have a draw, a draw would have been a fair result.
We will never give up but I mean, if City keep on winning every game then nobody can catch them.
Thomas Tuchel
Todays man of the match
Raheem Sterling and Phil Foden both had a strong shout for the man of the match, but it had could only go to one man after his winning goal and his all round contribution to the game.
Congratulations to Kevin De Bruyne.
Kevin De Manchester City hero
The midfield maestro Kevin De Bruyne has now scored 21 Premier League goals from outside the box which is more than any other player since his debut for Manchester City in 2015-16.
Also he has now scored five goals against his former club Chelsea who must be dreading the day they let him go.
De Bruynes post-match thoughts
Kevin De Bruyne’s well-executed finish turned out to be the winning goal this afternoon and here is what the City talisman had to say about the game with BT Sport interviewer Des Kelly.
Obviously it’s a big game and I think they came here with a very good plan defensively but I think we played a pretty good game.
It’s nice to score the goal, it’s important because it is the only one but I think the team played very well today.
I think we knew that if we win today, we make the gap bigger on them and the title. We’ve been in this situation before where we have had points ahead but I think in the second year we were the same points behind.
A lot of things can change and the momentum can swing very quickly but I think the team was very focused on the job we needed to do.
Kevin De Bruyne
The full 90 match stats
Despite Chelsea having a couple glimpses of goal in the second half, Manchester City continued to dominate and their pressure eventually paid off.
Blues left feeling the blues
Chelsea lose the top of the table clash to Manchester City courtesy of Kevin De Bruyne’s well-placed effort.
Credit: @ChelseaFC Full time – Man City 1-0 Chelsea
The Cityzens make it twelve wins in a row in the Premier League and have put the nail in the coffin on Chelsea’s title winning hopes.
Fantastic performance by Manchester City who firmly look on course to clinch a second successive Premier League trophy.
Man City 1-0 Chelsea – Half a chance!
90+2. Manchester City had a slight opportunity to put Chelsea out of their misery but Kyle Walker picked out the wrong pass which was shephered out by Cesar Azpilicueta.
You feel as if that should be enough for the league leaders to leave Etihad with all three points.
Man City 1-0 Chelsea
90+1. The Blues are desperate to grab the equaliser but they just cannot string more than three passes together.
This is a championship winning performance by Man City. Pep Guardiola will be very proud of his side.
Three minutes of additional time
Man City 1-0 Chelsea – City sub
87. The City boss decides to add some fresh legs in attack which will keep the press on Chelsea’s defenders anytime they on the ball.
- Phil Foden – OFF
- Gabriel Jesus – ON
Man City 1-0 Chelsea
86. Chelsea are running out of time and running out of ideas because when they go forward, they have struggled to find a final pass.
Leaving Mason Mount out from the start is becoming to look like a bad decision from Thomas Tuchel.
Man City 1-0 Chelsea – City sub
83. Pep has made his first roll of the dice as he looks to protect the goal scorer having picked up a slight knock.
- Kevin De Bruyne – OFF
- Ilkay Gundogan – ON
Gundogan will take the captains armband for the remainder of the match.
Man City 1-0 Chelsea – Unlucky Foden!
82. Raheem Sterling’s feet was too quick for Malang Sarr on this occassion as he did well to dodge the Chelsea defender’s challenge before picking out Phil Foden.
But the English youngster was unable to keep his shot down in what was a fantastic position to kill this game off.
Man City 1-0 Chelsea – Chelsea change
79. Finally, Thomas Tuchel has decided to bring on Chelsea’s talisman with a little over ten minutes to save a point.
- Marcos Alonso – OFF
- Mason Mount – ON
Kevin De Bruyne is king
The Belgian international could be saving the day again as Kevin De Bruyne’s goal puts Man City ahead in this top of the table clash.
Man City 1-0 Chelsea
72. Kevin De Bruyne’s 74th goal in Manchester City colours has put a sigh of relief on the faces of Pep Guardiola and all the Cityzen’s in the Etihad Stadium.
As it stands, the hosts will go 13 points clear of Chelsea at the top which looks too big of a mountain to climb for the Blues.
Goal! – 1-0 to City!
Manchester City are finally rewarded with the goal that they have deserved thanks to a brilliant finish by their skipper Kevin De Bruyne.
He did well to ride the challenge of N’Golo Kante following some good build-up play before placing the ball into Kepa’s bottom left-hand corner.
Man City 0-0 Chelsea – Chelsea changes
67. Double positive change from the visitors as Thomas Tuchel looks to add some fresh legs and pace to that attack.
- Hakim Ziyech – OFF
- Chrisitan Pulisic – OFF
- Callum Hudson-Odoi – ON
- Timo Werner – ON
Man City 0-0 Chelsea
66. It was a good delivery from Hakim Ziyech but Romelu Lukaku couldn’t make a proper connection.
That’s a little better from the Blues.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
