Manchester City 1 Chelsea 1: Haaland off target; Sterling, Palmer haunt former club

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James BAOUCH
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Rodri struck a late goal as Manchester City came back to draw 1-1 with Chelsea at the Etihad Stadium in an enthralling Premier League game.

The Spaniard cancelled out Raheem Sterling’s opener, which came just before half-time, as Mauricio Pochettino’s side went close to taking victory against the champions.

The draw means City are four points behind Liverpool, who beat Brentford 4-1 on Saturday, with a game in hand. They are also two points behind Arsenal, having played a game less.

Chelsea are tenth on 35 points.

Here, Sam Lee and Liam Twomey break down the key talking points of the game.

City missed technicians

One of City’s main issues on the day was a lack of the type of players who can help them whizz the ball around in tight areas, similar to last week against Everton.

With John Stones on the bench, Manuel Akanji was asked to step into midfield alongside Rodri and while he was by no means a disaster, he is just not as fluid as Stones, and things take a split second longer. With Bernardo Silva carrying a knock from Tuesday night’s victory in Copenhagen, they missed another technician in the next line, too, and so it fell to Julian Alvarez to drop deeper to try and help City establish their passing game. But again, but not his strong suit, either.

Against Chelsea’s committed and well-organised pressing, City needed to be pitch-perfect when moving the ball but with a couple of key absences they were a little stymied, and it meant that although they had five blockbuster names ahead of Rodri, the game became more stretched than they would have wanted, partly because those five all like to get the ball forward, rather than make the extra pass.

Chelsea also took advantage of second balls and some fine combinations between Connor Gallagher and others in his orbit, leaving City looking a little off the pace at times, too.

Guardiola says players like Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland ‘don’t make us play good, but they make the difference,’ but on a night when they could not come up with something, it fell to the one man in there who is crucial to their build-up, Rodri, to save their bacon as well.

Sterling and Palmer shine for Chelsea again

What strange hold does Sterling have over Kyle Walker?

Three months on from tormenting City’s jet-heeled last line of outfield defence at Stamford Bridge, Sterling had the measure of Walker for much of his 64 minutes on the pitch at the Etihad Stadium again — most memorably for the sequence which gave Chelsea their first goal at this stadium in more than two-and-a-half years.

What was it about Sterling’s long history as a left winger that left Walker unconvinced he would try to cut inside onto his right foot when Nicolas Jackson’s first-time cross reached him? Only the City man can answer that, but his telegraphed recovery run made Sterling’s decision for him, and opened up an angle to beat Ederson.


Sterling scores in the first half (Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)

That goal only happened thanks to the contribution of another City old boy who shone on his return to the Etihad. Cole Palmer said ahead of this match that he expected to feel a “strange” set of emotions returning to the home of the club where he learned his craft, but true to his character he looked utterly unfazed.

Palmer’s perfectly timed passes carved open City’s high defensive line for Chelsea runners on numerous occasions, and could have resulted in more goals than the one Sterling scored.

There were smaller moments, too — a nonchalant nutmeg of Julian Alvarez, a belated booking for relentlessly harrying Nathan Ake — which epitomised Chelsea’s defiant attitude.

Haaland misses out

After Haaland’s brace against Everton last weekend it was a case of, ‘Well, it is your job.’ The Norwegian is such a master goalscorer, without the ability to link up with his team-mates outside the area, that Guardiola had to rip up his plans last season to fit him in. He justified it by scoring a record number of goals (36).

When those goals dry up (relatively speaking), it is harder to justify somebody who is not exactly a passenger, but who does make fewer contributions to City’s build-up.

On a night like tonight, when City were missing a couple of craftsmen in the middle, they would at least need Haaland to make up for his lack of contribution outside the box with some decisive touches inside it. Unfortunately for them, he was inaccurate too often, and in fact this was the game in which he took the most shots (10) without scoring, with a previous highest of 6.

If the biggest thing you bring to the party by far is goals, you had better put them away.

Pochettino gets tactics spot-on

This was not the wild chaos-fest we witnessed between these two teams at Stamford Bridge in November. It was a pragmatic tactical triumph from Mauricio Pochettino, executed with real diligence and maturity by his young team.

Chelsea did not stand off City, nor did they attempt to smother them. Instead, they set clever traps in the middle third of the pitch, screening passes into Rodri, Julian Alvarez and Kevin De Bruyne, and hunting in packs to generate turnovers that they then used to ignite dangerous transition attacks.

Conor Gallagher was relentless in harrying Rodri, while Moises Caicedo showed impressive restraint after picking up a first-half yellow card. Enzo Fernandez did much more pressing than passing, but showed he is as much a grafter as playmaker.

Chelsea’s grit and determination laid the foundation for their front three to cause City all manner of problems, backed up opportunistically and smartly by their full-backs.

It became a siege when Chelsea’s legs ran out, and ultimately three points became one, but the fact that it took so long to become a game of survival is to Pochettino’s great credit.

What did the managers say?

We will bring you this after they have spoken at the post-match press conference.

What next for Manchester City?

Tuesday, February 20: Brentford, Premier League, 8pm GMT, 3pm ET

City host Brentford and will be hoping to avoid what happened last season – the west London side won 2-1 at the Etihad thanks to a brace from Ivan Toney.

What next for Chelsea?

Sunday, February 25: Liverpool, Carabao Cup final, 3pm GMT, 10am ET

Pochettino’s men will travel to Wembley for their Carabao Cup final clash with Liverpool. Chelsea will be hoping to salvage something from another disappointing season in this repeat of the 2022 final – Liverpool won on penalties that day.

Recommended reading

(Lead photo: DARREN STAPLES/AFP via Getty Images))



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