[Thread about Chelsea’s victory against Manchester City]

Chelsea beat Manchester City 2-1 yesterday, keeping City under 1 xG only for the second time this season. Meanwhile, this is the first time City conceded above 3 xG this season.

Defensively, Chelsea adopted a mid-to-low block 4-5-1. Kanté was at the base of a midfield 3 while Giroud was marking Rodri in order for the Spanish midfielder to not receive into space in the middle of the pitch.

Barkley and Mount were Chelsea’s central midfielders and tasked to cover Bernardo Silva and De Bruyne so they can’t get the ball higher up the pitch. Especially De Bruyne.

While they let a little bit more freedom to City’s left side, Chelsea did cut City’s right side and more specifically KDB. This way, City couldn’t work with triangles on their right side to find De Bruyne in behind the defensive line for a cut back. KDB then had to drop deeper.

We have seen United following KDB and David Silva in the halfspaces but Chelsea decided to opt for something different with Mount and Barkley marking Bernardo and KDB. It was as successful as United’ strategy.

Offensively, Chelsea didn’t really change from their usual strategy. To prevent City’s high press to be effective, they decided to launch long balls towards Giroud.

While Giroud was dropping deeper, he attracted one of City centre-backs with him and Pulisic had space to run into. It happened for the Pulisic’s chances where Walker saved it on the line.

As seen with the heatmap below, Pulisic was Chelsea’s most advanced player and Giroud was dropping in midfield to attract a centre-back with him.

Chelsea adopted a good strategy as it created them multiple occasions from it but we can’t deny the part of luck they benefited from as City should’ve dealt with and could’ve dealt with on another day.

All in all, Chelsea deserved to win the game but the difference in xG clearly didn’t highlight the whole game as City could’ve been more dangerous with Jesus instead of Bernardo at the start of the game and Sterling could’ve put them 2-1 up if he didn’t hit the post.