Manchester City 1-0 Chelsea: 5 Talking Points

Final scoreline: Manchester City 1-0 Chelsea

Scorer: Bernardo Silva 46'

In a game that required its spectators to pinch themselves to stay awake, league leaders Manchester City put one past Chelsea and strolled, I repeat, strolled past the defending champions. They have now moved one step closer to clinching the Premier League title.

Manchester City put their feet up and replaced Super Sunday with what looked like a training ground passing drill as they run rings around the Chelsea bus, albeit, to very little effect.

It was anything but Premier League-ish and here is what we took away from the game.

#5 Chelsea park the bus and lose the keys

After having conceded a defeat against Manchester United last week and with their Champions League hopes dwindling, you'd expect Chelsea to show up and make a statement.

Instead, they did the exact opposite. All of Chelsea's players sat deep in their own half as City took their sweet time to put their roots down.

They did nothing of note on either side of the pitch and hardly looked like an outfit that played for the man at the helm.

Conte decided to start the game without an out-and-out striker as Hazard led the line with Pedro and Willian flanking him.

Pedro had a shocker and Willian was no better as Hazard was criminally starved off any kind of service.

In fact, Chelsea hardly ever ventured forward and maintained a good 20 yards of distance from the halfway line at all points when City were on the ball.

Cesc Fabregas is not great at winning the ball back and it showed as City eased through the midfield battle and always got first to the loose ball.

Chelsea's only good chance of the game came when Moses was released on the right side by Fabregas but the Nigerian's effort went flying into the stands.

The defending Premier League champions did not register a shot on target on the night and looked like a bunch of kids who are yet to be taught the art of pressing.

Like Jamie Redknapp told Sky Sports after the game, Chelsea's performance truly was 'a crime against football'.

#4 Manchester City happy to oblige their opponents who were only interested in damage-limitation

Leroy Sane cut past 4 Chelsea players inside the area but couldn't apply the finishing touches

When these teams met for the first time this season at Stamford Bridge, the final scoreline was 0-1 in favour of the Cityzens. But that match was a top encounter where Conte and Pep did their best to try to outsmart each other.

Today, it was anything but. Kevin De Bruyne had a rather quiet game in so far as he couldn't play his archetypal incisive through balls because after all, how do you find gaps in a defence that consists of 10 players? (Read: Blue Bus).

David Silva and Leroy Sane were the ones responsible for whatever meagre amount of entertainment that came our way and it was the former who set up Bernardo Silva for the only goal of the game, just 36 seconds into the second half.

Once City got the goal, Chelsea's purpose of keeping the clean sheet stood defeated and they were expected to give it their best shot. However, Chelsea let City keep the ball and walk around the park like it was none of their business.

In fact, the goal was also borne out a defensive scramble after Christensen messed up inside the area and offered the ball to Aguero who found Silva on the edge of the area.

Did Chelsea have to offer as much respect to Manchester City?

#3 Kante sorely missed as Chelsea's lack of quality across the pitch is exposed

Chelsea midfielders struggled to keep up

Don't get me wrong. Chelsea have some top players in their squad. But since the turn of the year, they all have been made to look mediocre far too many times for anyone's liking.

Without Kante, Chelsea looked like a car that lost its engine and was stuck on a plateau. There was no ball recovery and their passing play lacked conviction and precision. After selling Matic, Conte brought in Bakayoko, Drinkwater and Barkley to sort out their midfield problems.

None of them have proved to be a quality replacement for the solid Serbian and in the absence of Kante, they looked devoid of ideas and deprived of any quality going forward.

Hazard hardly ever got on the ball after he was deployed as a false nine/striker(?) (it was hard to discern given how rarely they got forward).

Pedro's passing was awful and a couple of times when it looked like it could either way as Chelsea broke on the counter, it was his passing in the final third that made sure that it all came to nothing.

Chelsea did not press until the Cityzens forayed into the final third and in the absence of Kante, they looked like they'd been stripped off of their ball retrieving powers.

#2 It's all too easy for Manchester City and the league is pretty much theirs

Manchester City, for all their dominance in the league. wouldn't have, in their wildest dreams, figured they were this revered even amongst their top title rivals (in an ideal world, i.e). They have been this free-scoring juggernaut so consistently that Chelsea only ever wanted this evening to not turn into one of them nightmares.

After having played Arsenal twice in the past week, the Cityzens had been expected to show signs of fatigue but Chelsea did all they could to help their opponents relax and even recuperate by offering them acres of space and deciding to play spectators for the entirety of 90 minutes.

It was more of a case of City restricting themselves and deciding that the one goal was more than enough after gauging Chelsea's character on the pitch.

Manchester City had 77% of the ball at some point way past the half-hour mark in the first half and the gulf in class between Pep's side and Conte's was as explicit as it could be.

Chelsea are a shadow of the team that won the league last time around after finishing 15th points above Manchester City.

Manchester City started with Zinchenko at left-back. Zinchenko is a winger and is not famous for his defensive abilities and even after he got yellow-carded, Chelsea never looked like they were even remotely interested in the possibility of exploiting that weakness.

This was perhaps the greatest indicator of the difference between these two teams. One team that is too scared to be adventurous and the other that can win a race in second gear.

#1 Antonio Conte and Chelsea are in serious trouble

When Eden Hazard was taken off in the dying embers of the game, the Belgian walked past Conte and into the dugout without so much as offering his gaffer a glance. That remind you of something?

Chelsea are 4 points behind Tottenham who are currently sitting at 4th in the Premier League table with 58 points. Liverpool are 2nd with 60 points and Manchester United are 3rd with 59 points. The Red Devils face Crystal Palace on Monday and could very well extend the gap between them and Chelsea to 9 points.

Tottenham, Liverpool and Manchester United all look in much better shape than this Chelsea side and unless these teams surprisingly implode or run themselves into a rut, Chelsea are not going to qualify for Champions League next year.

They could yet qualify and that is if they beat Barcelona at the Camp Nou. Well, good luck with that.

The repercussions could be quite deadly for Chelsea. Antonio Conte looks like he is on the way out and looks like a man who's on borrowed time. Eden Hazard doesn't look pleased and you can't put a summer move past this frustrated Belgian genius.

Willian will be 30 by the time the next season starts and Fabregas and Pedro will be 31. Bakayoko has been disappointing all season and Barkley has hardly ever played yet. Drinkwater has not been impressive either and the lack of quality in the side is starting to show.

None of these players are getting any younger and in Alvaro Morata and Olivier Giroud, they have unreliable strikers. It looks like Chelsea could be in for a mass overhaul this summer and the rebuilding process could be one of the toughest periods the club has endured in the recent past.