{"id":1203608,"date":"2021-05-08T19:54:12","date_gmt":"2021-05-08T18:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?p=1203608"},"modified":"2022-11-24T20:41:28","modified_gmt":"2022-11-24T20:41:28","slug":"man-city-chelsea-match-analysis-aguero-premier-league","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/man-city-chelsea-match-analysis-aguero-premier-league\/","title":{"rendered":"Man City 1-2 Chelsea: Five things learned as Aguero’s “Pa-Stinker” delays coronation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Manchester City had the opportunity to regain their Premier League crown this evening when entertaining Chelsea at the Etihad Stadium but fell to a 1-2 defeat.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a dress rehearsal of this season’s Champions League final Pep Guardiola’s men knew if they picked up all three points today it meant securing a third championship in four seasons further cementing their status as English football’s number one team.<\/p>\n

A closely fought contest, which at one stage looked destined to end goalless, was decided in the final moments when Marcos Alonso gave the visitors all three points. Raheem Sterling on the stroke of half-time popped up to break the deadlock but that was soon cancelled out by Hakim Ziyech though it could all have been different if soon-to-depart club legend Sergio Aguero didn’t fluff his lines from the spot moments after his side went in front.<\/p>\n

As the dust settles, here are five things we learned from this pulsating encounter.<\/p>\n

1. Keeping us guessing
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Given the proximity of this game and their respective Champions League semi-final second-leg games it was understandable to see two very different lineups. Guardiola, the master of rotation, made no fewer than nine changes from City’s meeting against Paris Saint-Germain whilst his opposite number Thomas Tuchel was conservative by comparison making five alterations. “It was a huge effort, not only physically but mentally. We had one day less to recover, we had travel to do,” the German tactician said in his pre-match interview on Sky Sports. “You could see in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley what one day can do, we did not have to travel, they had after Dortmund, so we needed to make some changes. Also to prove we have trust in our whole squad, which is what we have. Game is on.”<\/p>\n

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A number of those you’d expect to feature in Uefa’s showpiece event were given the day off including Kevin de Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan, Mason Mount whilst Kai Havertz, Jorginho and Phil Foden starting on the bench. So to call this a ‘dress rehearsal’ might have been inaccurate, felt more like a phony war, but there were enough stars on the field to justify the billing. Once the match did get underway all eyes switched to City’s shape with Guardiola seemingly fielding a 5-1-4 formation though at times morphed into the more commonly seen 3-1-4-2 with Gabriel Jesus and Sergio Aguero deployed as a two-man forward tandem. Chelsea by contrast retained their 3-4-3 system which has served them incredibly well under the new Tuchel administration.<\/p>\n

2. Goal thief
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For only the fifth Premier League game of this season Raheem Sterling led City out into battle. In what has often been a frustrating campaign, the 61-time England international found himself on the bench against PSG earlier in the week, so with competition for a place out wide in Guardiola’s final lineup heating up the Londoner needed to rise to the occasion again. One thing no one could accuse Sterling of was not taking the game to Chelsea and that hustle was rewarded a minute before half-time when he swooped in to convert after Aguero’s uncharacteristic heavy touch saw him lose the chance to score in front of an unguarded net.<\/p>\n

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“I feel a bit sorry for Christensen, he looks to have done his hamstring. Jesus does well but the touch from Aguero\u2026 it’s awful. Sterling comes in like a thief in the night and scores!” was former City defender now turned Sky Sports pundit Micah Richards’ assessment during the break. It was a significant effort for Sterling as it ended a five-game scoring drought as well as bringing up 10 league goals for the season. He’s now reached double figures in each of his last four Premier League campaigns — a feat matched by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Harry Kane, Alexandre Lacazette, Mohamed Salah, Son Heung-min, Jamie Vardy and Chris Wood — with only the aforementioned Aguero doing so on more occasions (9) for the Mancunians.<\/p>\n

3. “Pa-Stinker”<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Oh no, Sergio ?<\/p>\n

Aguero's Panenka penalty does not go to plan… <\/p>\n

? Watch on Sky Sports PL
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— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) May 8, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n