tiki_taka
11 years ago
On this occasion, Demichelis has done his job well in covering for the absent Zabaleta on the right as Willian motors forward on that side.
With Toure far from determined to recover his position, though, the result is that Eden Hazard is given plentiful room in front of the defence to pick a pass and should have played in Eto'o given the space created behind Kompany, who had been drawn to the ball.
What actually occurred, though, was that Hazard ran with the ball himself across the defence and created a scoring opportunity, only for the offside flag to be raised against Eto'o and Ramires. It was another golden opportunity for an early goal.
Chelsea Defensive Masterclass
Toure gets past Luiz, while both Jesus Navas and Aleksandar Kolarov are making strong runs down the side for City. The Chelsea back four, though, is already well positioned to defend the attack. Matic, too, is making good ground to cover.
Eventually, the attack develops with Kolarov on the left, but Chelsea are well organised and Ivanovic closes his countryman down quickly to recover the ball. The positioning of Matic and Luiz, as well as the full-backs, is completely different to that of City at the other end.
City's attacks weren't all from transitions, though, with Chelsea allowing their rivals 65 percent of possession on the night.
However, what Squawka statistics show is that the Blues made only 31 tackles compared to City's 54 on the night. Rather than seek to win the ball back, they held their positions and waited until the right opportunity arose.
A big part of that was the role of Hazard, Willian and Ramires, all of whom were excellent at tracking back and watching runners from midfield. As the following picture demonstrates, their industry enabled Chelsea to keep their shape in the face of City's spells of possession.
As a consequence, City were able to complete very few passes in and around the Chelsea area, as the following diagram demonstrates.
As an extension to Marcus post, predicting the result of a game is not hating. We can dont like the behaviour of the best coach of the world without being hateful for his team. He could have done the same without talking once again about refs before the game starts.
Jose Mourinhos Chelsea became the first team to beat Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium this season and did so without "parking the bus" as many had predicted in pre-match analysis.
Manchester City have been phenomenal on home turf this season, scoring 42 goals in the process of winning all 11 home games prior to Monday night. The loss of both Sergio Aguero and Fernandinho was undoubtedly a major blow, but it is Mourinho and his side who must be handed much credit for the result.
Much was made earlier in the season of the Portuguese managers decision to remove Juan Mata from the Chelsea starting lineup, instead generally preferring Oscar, Willian and Eden Hazard as his attacking midfield trio.
A chelsea fan on twitter : For all Chelseas attacking threat. They get numbers back behind the ball so quickly that is why matic instead of oscar.
On this occasion, meanwhile, Oscar was omitted in favour of Ramires taking on a more advanced role. However, the same principles that saw Mata made redundant at the club were the foundation of this success—defensive responsibility and speed in transitions.
Ramires, Willian and Hazard were where the game was won for Chelsea on this occasion, with their disciplined approach important in restricting City as an attacking threat while also offering an outlet going forward.
Defensive pairing of John Terry and Gary Cahill, along with the imposing Nemanja Matic in midfield, then ensured a clean sheet was kept at the back.
From the opening minutes of the game it became clear just how Mourinho planned to trouble City. With Manuel Pellegrinis side pushing their full-backs forward, Chelsea looked to exploit the space on the flanks.
With defensive midfielders Martin Demichelis and Yaya Toure failing to fill the gaps, largely due to the Ivorian s indifference to defensive work, the Blues strategy enjoyed some success.
The following three pictures show a Chelsea counter-attack developing in the opening minutes of the game and the failings of the City midfield duo to accommodate for their attacking full-backs.
The move ultimately led to a corner, after a collision between Vincent Kompany and Nemanja Nastasic almost presented Chelsea with a golden chance. The lack of organisation, though, was caused by their opponent s speed in transition.
Just a few minutes later and we have another example of Chelsea almost scoring from a counter-attack.