16 Conclusions on Chelsea 4-4 Manchester City: Sterling, Dias, Palmer, Rodri, Jackson, Southgate
Pep Guardiola and Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino renewed their basketball rivalry in a game which somehow showed up Gareth Southgate more than anyone.
1) Does anyone else have a sudden urge to rewatch the 2019 Champions League quarter-finals?
2) “Who do we leave out to put him in? It is as simple as that really.”
To simplify it further for Gareth Southgate, how do you leave him out? When Raheem Sterling is in such phenomenal, gloriously vengeful form, there must be a place for him in any England squad.
It was quantifiably sensational, with Sterling equalising, completing the most dribbles of any Chelsea player and launching at least three attacks through diligent counter-pressing. But he was qualitatively brilliant too, the experienced leader of an effervescent forward line which the European champions failed to lock down.
3) Cole Palmer was cited at the forefront of “a change in landscape” for England’s attacking options and there was certainly more of an excuse not to pick a player who is undeniably better served on a diet of actual U21 minutes rather than senior cameos. But he and Sterling very much took their recent club and country conundrums personally if their respective performances were anything to go by.
Pep Guardiola suggested Palmer had been promised more regular opportunities at the Etihad in light of Riyad Mahrez’s summer departure, but the 21-year-old’s decision to back himself with a fresh start at Chelsea has paid immediate dividends. The development in his game under Mauricio Pochettino has been stark and the coolness of his stoppage-time penalty equaliser made up for Ederson preventing a sublime solo goal earlier in the second half.
Sterling and Palmer were at opposing junctures in their careers when they chose to unhook themselves from the safety net of Manchester City and leap into the unknown at Chelsea. Eyebrows were raised in both instances but Mauricio Pochettino has helped vindicate their decisions.
4) Not every point will be viewed through the prism of Southgate criticism but honestly, Guardiola can thank the England manager for motivating about half of Chelsea’s squad before the game.
Southgate was at least able to “understand” Reece James’ call to withdraw himself from national team selection after only recently returning from injury, but the idea that it is anything close to a “risk” seems backwards. Focusing on regaining fitness and establishing consistency is very much the opposite, whether England only have one pre-Euros camp left or not.
If James can prove his “physical reliability” in that time, he gets picked. No player created more Chelsea chances against Manchester City and his five tackles were the most of anyone on either side, nullifying Jeremy Doku in a way that has not been achieved since the Belgian’s arrival in the Premier League.
James was taken off five minutes after Doku’s own substitution, with a pat on the back after a job brilliantly done. “We’re going to learn a lot about him in the next few months playing as a full-back rather than a wing-back,” said Southgate, who must have enjoyed the first lesson.
5) Hell, perhaps Chelsea shouldn’t sell James after all. See you back here next week when he strains his hamstring in training.
6) Not since their 5-2 defeat to Leicester in September 2020 have Manchester City either conceded so many goals in a game or – not coincidentally, of course – looked so defensively vulnerable. But it was the player they signed almost because of that Foxes thrashing who was most culpable against Chelsea.
Ruben Dias had a dreadful game, being caught curiously high up the pitch challenging ineffectively for the ball in the build-up to the second goal, unnecessarily sliding in to try and block Conor Gallagher’s shot and thus giving Nicolas Jackson the space to convert the follow-up for the third, then cosplaying a firefighter rushing to an emergency before jumping headfirst through a flaming window when Armando Broja was played in late on.
Cole Palmer celebrates scoring for Chelsea against old side Manchester City
7) The fifth-most expensive defender in Premier League history was poor but the second costliest was not much better. Not since he met Lionel Messi at the World Cup has Josko Gvardiol looked quite so awkward, which is absolutely fair enough when confronted with the greatest player in the sport’s history but is a little less forgivable when inexplicably tangling one’s own feet because of an actually quite bad Palmer pass to James on the overlap.
On this basis, John Stones might have just barely surpassed Rodri as Manchester City’s most important player.
8) Erling Haaland might have something to say about that after a display which was frustratingly undermined by incompetence and individual error at the other end.
Neither of the Norwegian’s goals were particularly groundbreaking – a penalty he won and converted, then one bundled in off his actual gooch – but his overall play was a marked improvement on the usual single-digit-touch fare. Some of his passes, while not quite of Harry Kane’s level, were vaguely reminiscent of the England forward’s stunning range.
There will obviously be no shouts for Haaland to stop dropping deep and to play solely within the space between the posts but it was his hold-up play and manipulation of Moises Caicedo which bypassed the press and created the third goal, while one phase saw him release Doku with a beautiful turn and pass down the left. The goalbot has had a system update.
9) If that second Haaland goal had been ruled out for handball, with it possibly brushing the Norwegian’s elbow as he himself was already in the back of the net, well ahead of the ball, it might genuinely have been the greatest moment in the sport’s history.
10) That unfortunately brings us to the first and easily most contentious of the two penalties, awarded to basically no reaction in the stands following the protestations of maybe two Manchester City players, including the apparent victimised party in Haaland.
It was pretty much a nonsense. He pulled Marc Cucurella’s shirt first to get ahead of the defender, who dragged him back in retaliation before the pair crumpled on top of one another. Seemingly only the second part of that situation was checked and thus VAR did not recommend that Anthony Taylor review his decision on the monitor after stripping the moment of all context. The mistake was theirs and thankfully it did not have too material an impact on either the entertainment level or the outcome.
11) Chelsea really were very good in attack. Their early moves were barely thwarted by last-ditch touches from Kyle Walker and the excellent Phil Foden, while some of Sterling, Palmer and Gallagher’s decision-making on the ball after forcing high turnovers was found wanting.
That actually mirrored their end to the game, when a perfectly-timed Manuel Akanji slide tackle thwarted a two-on-one attack before Sterling dispossessed Jack Grealish on the edge of the Manchester City area and played in Malo Gusto, who curled his effort over when he should have scored.
A harsh critic might categorise Chelsea’s goals as: set-piece, opponent’s error, opponent’s error, penalty. Their former manager once ruled out Crystal Palace’s four goals against his Everton side as “a goal from a corner, then another average goal, a fluke goal and another average goal” so it really can and does happen.
But it is worth reiterating just how dangerous Pochettino has made Chelsea – and how panicked Manchester City were as a result – through his usual brand of direct attacking. With admittedly not exactly the same players, this Blues side was almost a non-entity going forward for so much of this calendar year in particular.
12) Jackson encapsulates that rough diamond aspect of this Chelsea side. Even in scoring a hat-trick against Tottenham he attracted more flak than praise and there has been almost no patience with regards to a player leading the line at an elite club in his second full season of senior football.
So much of his game is still characterised by naivety, like in the eighth minute when, faced with Walker as the last man back after receiving a Sterling pass, his kick-and-rush approach resulted in the ball landing at Ederson’s feet after a predictably one-sided race. But the instincts are there, as shown by his reactions for the third goal and movement in dragging Dias out of position and onto the back foot for the fourth.
He is obviously a very good player who is fighting the tide after being thrown in at the deep end, but one who is staying afloat and deserves far more credit nonetheless.
13) That Jackson goal was included in a glorious five minutes of self-acknowledged anti-commentator curse fun from Jamie Carragher, who had called for the forward to be substituted moments prior before leading the calls for a penalty after Axel Disasi cleared Bernardo Silva’s cross soon after. Turns out it was a header, not a handball, and something deemed so inconsequential that they didn’t even show a replay.
That’s why I’m not a manager 😂😂 https://t.co/UWXb04yabG
— Jamie Carragher (@Carra23) November 12, 2023
14) Manchester City’s main issue can be summed up as a lack of central control, owing to one of Rodri’s least effective games in recent memory. The Spaniard still scored one goal and created three chances but Gallagher’s energy provided a degree of challenge he rarely faces.
“We feel a bit exhausted to be honest, with that game, with that rhythm,” Rodri said afterwards. Manchester City were pulled into a basketball match and it can be safely assumed that was not at all on their terms.
15) From at least three different positions, Gallagher had the joint-most shots of any mortal being (Haaland had four) and created more chances than every player bar Haaland and Rodri, while completing three tackles, committing five fouls without incurring a booking against the masters of the art, and finished with the highest passing accuracy (95%) of any starter on either side.
16) Foden was excellent. Maybe don’t leave him out for Sterling.
