Match Report: City's Biennial Title Challenge on Track After Chelsea False Start

Going into Sunday’s clash between title hopefuls Manchester City and Chelsea, the statistics were in favour of the defending champions. Manchester City had won just 2 of their last 9 league games against Chelsea and Manuel Pellegrini had orchestrated just 2 wins in 12 attempts over Jose Mourinho. However, Chelsea haven’t looked like they’ve got out of their pre-season funk while Manchester City put on a confident display against West Brom on Monday and looked to build on that back at the Etihad.

Within seconds of the match kicking off, Asmir Begovic found himself face to face with Sergio Agüero as the Argentinian looked to have simply materialised behind Chelsea’s backline - a position he would find himself in throughout the afternoon. Begovic made a valiant effort of keeping him at bay for as long as he could, but a half an hour in and Agüero found the goal he’d been looking for.

Just before the end of the first half, things got slightly frantic - and not just for footballing reasons. As Asmir Begovic tried to punch clear a shot, he made contact with Gary Cahill’s face. Cahill’s injury needed the attention of Chelsea’s new look medical staff, who were greeted with as much enthusiasm from the home fans as their opening goal. Just as Cahill made his way to the touchline for treatment, Fernandinho’s elbow ‘accidentally’ made contact with Diego Costa’s head. Costa took it with the good grace he always does as the two exchanged pleasantries from the pitch down the tunnel once the striker's head was bandaged up.

Manchester City were unlucky to go into the break with just a single goal lead. They attacked with purpose and exposed a fragility in Chelsea’s defence not often seen last season. Even Jose Mourinho was willing to concede that City were the better team in the first half. Agüero alone managed more shots (5) than they entire Chelsea side (4) in those opening 45 minutes.

As the teams re-emerged for the second half, there was a familiar face missing — John Terry. For the first time in 177 Premier League matches under his management, Terry was subbed off by Jose Mourinho. In need of a goal, Mourinho wanted to play his defensive line further up the pitch, and to do so needed his fastest defender on the pitch - Kurt Zouma. Mourinho refused to be drawn as to why he chose his captain over Cahill to make way for Zouma’s pace.

Chelsea may have looked like more of a threat in the second half, but that spoke more of their first half performance than anything else. Eden Hazard managed Chelsea’s first shot on target after 70 minutes of action, a big chance followed by an even bigger save from Joe Hart. Minutes later another Belgian found the back of the net. Vincent Kompany scored his second goal in as many appearances. It’s the first time since December 2013 that he’s scored in consecutive matches. Fernandinho survived any real retaliation from Diego Costa to pop up with City’s third with just 5 minutes to go.

After last week’s match against Swansea, Chelsea sensibly set up to assist Branislav Ivanovic in covering the pace of Raheem Sterling, which inadvertently freed up space for Aleksander Kolarov. He played 11 crosses in (5 of them accurate) and created 4 chances. He also added 5 clearances at the other end of the pitch, only Eliaquim Mangala made more (6).

Sunday’s game was Chelsea’s heaviest defeat in the Premier League under Mourinho (joint with their last away game and a trip to Boro in 2005/6 — also 3-0 losses). It’s also the first time since 2007 that Mourinho has lost a Premier League game to a side that finished in the top 4 in the previous season. Chelsea fans will be hoping it’s not an omen of things to come, while Manchester City look well on their way to continue their biennial title challenge.

How impressed were you with City and how much longer can Chelsea's stumbling start go on? Let us know in the comments below