A rare Thursday game meant the Premier League is embarking onto its busy festive season schedule, this time a heavyweight clash between Chelsea and Manchester City. Both teams were unbeaten since coming back from the FIFA World Cup break, and had each collected four points out of a possible six in two Premier League fixtures. They came into Stamford Bridge with different ambitions, as the former struggled to find its feet under new manager Graham Potter while the latter was determined to trim their point difference with Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, which has dropped points against Newcastle United a day earlier.
City Won 11th Consecutive First Premier League Game of the Year
The Blue Side of Manchester had managed an incredible winning stats in each of their last ten first Premier League game of a New Year, winning each and every fixture, and they were determined not to let that record go away against Chelsea last evening. Despite star striker Erling Haaland was unable to find a shot on target throughout the 90 minutes plus added time, his teammate, Algeria’s captain Riyad Mahrez came to City’s rescue, by meeting a cross from the left via Jack Grealish’s effort to score the only goal of the match. Chelsea’s goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga was the man to blame for City’s fruitful effort as he had all the time and space in the world to intercept or hold the delivery from City’s no. 10, but his mistake proved costly as both Pep Guardiola’s substitutes combined to help the Citizens to win their first Premier League game of the new year for the 11th time in a row.
The Blues had a precious chance to equalise in the dying moments of the game, where 18-year-old Lewis Hall’s effort from the left flank went slightly over the bar in the 91st minute. Had that goal gone in, the Slough-born midfielder would have become Chelsea’s second youngest goal scorer in the celebrated Premier League. The 1-0 score line remained till the final whistle of the match, with City taking all three points from Stamford Bridge and closing on league leader Arsenal in point difference (Five).
Four Straight Wins Against Chelsea
With yesterday’s triumph over the Blues, City is now enjoying a four-game winning streak against the team from London in all competitions, with both teams ready to go again on Sunday, this time a FA Cup Third Round clash at the Etihad Stadium. Moreover, the loss meant Chelsea has now only managed to win one of their last eight Premier League fixtures, which was a 2-0 victory against A. F. C. Bournemouth at home a week earlier, drawing the other three and losing the remaining four. The consolation for the team is that they can swift their focus to the domestic cup this weekend, before resuming its Premier League matches again next week.
5′ – Aubameyang subbed on for Chelsea
68′ – Aubameyang subbed off for ChelseaA night to forget for the striker 😬 pic.twitter.com/LMGzfhNf64
— SPORTbible (@sportbible) January 5, 2023
Potter to Be Axed?
When the 47-year-old Potter took charge of Chelsea earlier this season, he helped the Blues to go on a nine-match undefeated streak, but things had changed drastically since that impressive run as after this loss against City, Chelsea had slipped to no. 10 in the Premier League, with only three points separating it from the bottom half of the table. Besides, Graham had also just lost six of his seven managerial matches against the team from the Blue Half of Manchester. These all led to the question of whether his termination would occur in the near future as an ambitious team like Chelsea and its fans deserve more than what they had achieved now; Graham Potter’s odd of getting sacked / leaving the team was 14/1 already before the City clash, any slips again from this point on will only worsen the case.
How do you rate Potter’s performance so far as the manager of Chelsea?
PSG lost their first league match since March 2022 against Lens yesterday without Messi and Neymar, read the full story right away: https://www.otherleague.com/football/messi-and-neymar-less-psg-lost-for-the-first-time-since-march-lens-closed-the-gap-on-the-french-ligue-1-leader/
