Review of Chelsea's loss to Manchester City

Three reasons why Chelsea lost to Manchester City

The victory was straight and well deserved. Simply put, Manchester City were the better team than Chelsea and they deserved the victory.

Kevin De Bruyne's goal in the 67th minute proved to be decisive and that one goal was all that was needed to win the game. 

Chelsea were not even close to their best against City and the loss could not be justified in any way.

So, let’s now look at the reasons for the loss.

      1.       Formation

Much of the success that came to Chelsea last season was because of their formation. A change from the usual back four to 3-4-2-1. This change in formation was the reason they were able to go on a 13 game winning streak but against Manchester City, Chelsea played in 3-5-2 formation with Hazard and Morata up front. This meant a lack of wide players up front, Morata was the front man and Hazard played behind Morata. The wing-backs Azpilicueta and Alonso had to come up front on many occasions and this left the midfielders to do the defensive duties. A big mistake, as this exposed our defence and Chelsea struggled when City came on an all out attack.

      2.       Wing-Back

As I had said before the game started, Azpilicueta was never good as a wing-back. That is his weakness. If I know it, Conte should definitely know it and should not have deployed him as a wing-back. Another mistake was not starting Moses, a player who had well settled in the game at that position. His pace combined with his back and forth running was definitely missed during yesterday’s game. Fabien Delph was playing as a full-back and only if Moses had played, Delph would have been no match for the Nigerian’s attacking threat and pace. Big mistake.

      3.       Midfield

All our three midfielders, Kante, Bakayoko and Fabregas started the game and that was a terrible move. Fabregas, even if deployed as a wide-man always moves to the center of the pitch and this leaves the wing-back’s to cover up for him and this also resulted in the reduction in Chelsea’s attacking threat. With only two players up front, Chelsea were no match for City’s defense. Playing all three meant that there was no real substitution left for the team and this also resulted in the lack of Chelsea’s attacking threat.

      4.       Attack

Pedro who had not played against Atletico Madrid was fresh and ready to start but he wasn’t played and this was a big mistake for he would have provided the much needed extra attacking threat which was missing for the entire game. Only if Pedro, Morata and Hazard had started the game, the balance would have been even and a constant threat and pressure would have been ever present on City’s defense.

Overall, if Conte had not deviated from his usual and played with the same wing-back and front three that dominated much of last season, a victory could have been achieved.