Manchester City temporarily leapfrogged Arsenal to move up to third in the Premier League after they beat Chelsea 3-0 at Stamford Bridge on Saturday. A hat-trick from Sergio Aguero was enough to hand the Blues a second consecutive defeat in the league while Manuel Pellegrini won his 100th game as City manager.
Squads
Chelsea: Courtois; Azpilicueta, Cahill, Ivanovic (C), Rahman, Mikel, Fabregas, Willian, Loftus-Cheek, Pedro, Costa
Manchester City: Hart, Zabaleta, Otamendi, Mangala, Kolarov, Toure, Fernandinho, Navas, Nasri, De Bruyne, Aguero
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Pellegrini made four changes to the starting lineup that beat PSG 1-0 in midweek in the Champions League. Both Samir Nasri and Yaya Toure started the game while Nicolas Otamendi and Eliaquim Mangala started in central defence in the absence of the injured Vincent Kompany. Guus Hiddink started 20-year-old Ruben Loftus-Cheek while Diego Costa returned to the XI after serving his suspension.
Sergio Aguero fires Man City into the lead
It was a cagey and nervous start for both sides with both defences called into action early in the first half. Aguero had a chance to put the Manchester club 1-0 up as early as the third minute when Kevin De Bruyne found him with a pass from the right. The 27-year-old pulled the trigger with a first-time shot but a backtracking Cesar Azpilicueta came to Chelsea’s rescue with an extended foot that blocked Aguero’s shot.
At the other end, a long ball saw Joe Hart come off his line and tussle with Diego Costa as the Brazilian-born Spanish striker controlled the ball with his back to goal. Costa set up his international teammate Pedro whose shot was on target but saved off the line by an alert Otamendi.
Thibaut Courtois was then called into action twice in the first half. The first time, Yaya Toure released De Bruyne down the middle but his left-footed shot was blocked by his compatriot. Soon after, Samir Nasri had a chance to dink it over the big Belgian but opted to fire a shot low that was saved again by Courtois.
The goal soon came in the 33rd minute when a Chelsea corner swiftly turned into a Manchester City counter-attack. De Bruyne carried the ball forward and drew Chelsea’s defenders towards him before squaring a ball to Sergio Aguero. The Argentine striker set himself up for a long-range shot and a deflection off Gary Cahill’s foot was enough to beat Courtois and find the back of the net.
City were the better side in the latter stages of the half as their full-backs Pablo Zabaleta and Aleksandar Kolarov bombarded forward and sent in crosses. Aguero was clearly the target with even Jesus Navas coming close to finding him inside a crowded Chelsea box.
Aguero completes his hat-trick
Chelsea started the second half as the stronger side as they pegged City back into their own box. Pedro looked to find Loftus-Cheek with a cross but it was a tad too high for the midfielder to control as they squandered the opportunity to equalise.
Just when the Blues looked to have seized the initiative, City struck again. Yet another counter-attack saw Sergio Aguero time his run to perfection to beat the offside trap as Nasri put him through on goal and the striker’s finish found the far corner with Courtois beaten. It was Aguero’s 20th league goal of the season.
Pablo Zabaleta escaped a second yellow card for a foul on Pedro, much to the frustration of the Chelsea players and fans. Pellegrini did the smart thing by taking him off soon after, replacing him with Bacary Sagna.
With Chelsea struggling to make inroads into City’s defence, Hiddink brought on Kenedy and Traore for Willian and Pedro with 20 minutes to play. Meanwhile, Nasri was taken off for Fabian Delph.
Things went from bad to worse for Chelsea as Courtois received a straight red card for denying Fernandinho a goalscoring opportunity. The Brazilian midfielder was through on goal and was fouled in the box. It was similar to his mistake in the first game of the season against Swansea and it gave Sergio Aguero a chance to grab his hat-trick.
And that’s exactly what he did. After Asmir Begovic came on in place of John Obi Mikel, Aguero sent him the wrong way to grab his 21st league goal of the season. He also became only the third visiting player after Kanu and Robin van Persie (both for Arsenal) to score a hat-trick at Stamford Bridge.
That was the last bit of action from Aguero as Kelechi Iheanacho came on for the final minutes of the game. As much as Chelsea tried to get back into the game, they were simply unable to seriously test Hart in goal as they lost the chance to go above Stoke City in the table and remained in 10th place.
