Chelsea 2-1 Manchester City: Tactical Analysis

Chelsea Attack

As for the attack, as mentioned above, Chelsea were looking to get the ball forward to Torres and have runners get beyond him and support him. Doing so meant that runners may drag defenders deep, and create space for Fernando Torres to run into, which he did very happily. Chelsea were basically very pleased to play on the break, let City have the ball and then move into the spaces. At the times that Chelsea did have the ball, the width was restricted to that of the penalty box, as the full backs weren’t encouraged to bomb down the flanks. The attack being narrow, Chelsea players had to attempt dribbles and use some very creative means to break down the City defence. This is why we saw a lot of back-heels and flicks of that sort coming from the home side. Chelsea made 16 dribbles in the game, as opposed to just 9 by City. Of the 16, Ramires and Ivanovic alone made 4.

City Cut-Backs

A well documented weakness of the Chelsea defence is their tendency to concede goals from low and hard cut backs into the box. Over the last couple of seasons, this has been a problem. Manchester United exploited it brutally and brilliantly in their 2-3 win at Stamford Bridge last season. City used the same blue print coming into this game. All the wide players tried to get to the by-line, and the full backs were also over-lapping and attempting cut backs. In the first image above, Zabaleta can be seen attempting one. The difference between that game a year ago, and this one though, was the kind of organisation Chelsea showed in dealing with the threat. The centre backs got deep enough, and the midfielders like Lampard got back into the box to get to the second ball and clear the lines.

Midfield Battle

Neutralising the Yaya Toure threat

Last season, Chelsea were thrashed by City every time the two faced off primarily due to the fact that Yaya Toure was allowed to stamp his authority all over the midfield. This time around, Mourinho and Chelsea seemed prepared to take on the big Ivorian. Apart from Oscar dropping deep to add to the numbers in the central areas, Lampard and Ramires were quite prepared to get stuck in and leave a little on Toure. The aggression from the Chelsea players in general was very high. They committed 11 fouls, and made 25 tackles. Though the method was slightly unsavoury, it proved to be effective, with Toure unable to dominate proceedings. Fernandinho and Garcia did well, but the deeper line ensured that many of their chipped passes and through balls were picked up either by Cech, or the defenders, of whom Terry made 3 interceptions.

Long Ball Through The Middle

Over the course of this season, City have struggled when faced with a long pass down the middle. The confusion has been all too evident, and Chelsea set out to exploit this. They played a number of long passes to Fernando Torres, and long passes in general to exploit this weakness. The outfielders except Torres played 34 long balls in all, and the winning goal fittingly came after a long ball caused enough confusion in the City ranks to give Torres an open net to shoot into.

Conclusion

Chelsea may not have looked as dominant as their counterparts, but they stuck to their game plan, and the speed of their attacks was enough to overwhelm City. As for the second goal, it’s not a one off, and Pellegrini will need to work hard in training with Hart and the defenders to ensure that they cope with such threats better. City again dominated ball possession, and made some good moves without really making chances that could be called clear cut. The penetration is another area City will have to do some work in.

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