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FULL-TIME, Manchester City 1-0 Chelsea: Bernardo Silva’s goal was enough to earn City a more than deserved victory. The scoreline doesn’t tell the whole story and it doesn’t do justice to a dominant performance from the Premier League leaders. Leroy Sané and David Silva were special in this game, and the entire four-man defense and Ederson played a fantastic match to keep Chelsea from scoring, although the Blues never really threatened.
City are now 18 points clear at the top of the table and the title is now just a matter of time.
GOAL! Manchester City 1-0 Chelsea: What a start to the second half! Less than 40 seconds after kickoff, Ilkay Gundogan played a ball over the top to the edge of the box and Andreas Christensen failed to clear it; Sergio Agüero got to it and found David Silva, who then played a very good ball across the face of goal that was met by Bernardo Silva for the opener. 1-0 to the home team!
Bernardo Silva scores for @ManCity within a minute of the second half starting! #SharkTeam pic.twitter.com/jH2f2RasFc
— NBC Sports Soccer (@NBCSportsSoccer) March 4, 2018
HALFTIME, Manchester City 0-0 Chelsea: This was one of the most one-sided halves of football between two top Premier League teams we’ve seen in a long time. City absolutely dominated the entire first period, and that was partly because Chelsea just didn’t look like wanting to play at all.
Antonio Conte’s side set up in a 5-4-1 formation that parked a few buses in front of the box and just tried to avoid conceding. Eden Hazard was the main striker and did not have a chance to create problems because the rest of his teammates just didn’t want to join him in the attacks. The Belgian was alone, and the City defense easily dealt with him.
City had all of the ball and all of the dangerous opportunities, but they didn’t really trouble Thibaut Courtois in goal thanks to Chelsea’s buses. The only clear-cut chance came from a Kevin De Bruyne free kick that Leroy Sané controlled beautifully and fired home a great shot, but César Azpilicueta was in the right place at the right time and cleared the ball off the line.
The only thing lacking from City’s first half performance is a goal, and that could come back to haunt them in the second half. Here’s hoping it doesn’t.
KICKOFF, Manchester City 0-0 Chelsea. Let’s do this, boys!
Welcome to Premier League Sunday! Manchester City are back home for a Premier League game for the first time in a while, and what a big game it is: they welcome defending champions Chelsea to the Etihad, and while Antonio Conte’s Blues are definitely not winning the title this season they are still pretty good.
Pep Guardiola and his team are now just 10 games or five wins away from the title, and this is without a doubt one of the toughest tests remaining for the virtual champions. Chelsea lost their last league game to Manchester United but had been in good form before, and Conte is always ready for Pep. This should be fun, and you cannot miss it.
MATCH INFO
Competition/Round: 2017-18 Premier League, Matchday 29
Date/Time: Sunday, March 4th, 2018, 4pm GMT (UK), 5pm WAT (Nigeria), 11am EST, 8am PST (USA), 9.30pm IST (India)
Venue: Etihad Stadium, Manchester, England
Referee: Michael Oliver
HOW TO WATCH, STREAM PREMIER LEAGUE
How to watch on TV: Sky Sports Premier League (UK), NBCSN (USA), Sportsnet (Canada), SuperSport 3 (Nigeria), Star Sports Select 1 (India), others
How to stream: Sky GO (UK), NBC Sports Live (USA), FuboTV (7-day free trial, click here to sign up)
LINEUPS
MANCHESTER CITY
Starting XI: Ederson; Walker, Otamendi, Laporte, Zinchenko; De Bruyne, Gundogan, Silva; Bernardo, Agüero, Sané
Substitutes: Bravo, Danilo, Kompany, Stones, Yaya Touré, Foden, Gabriel Jesus
CHELSEA
Starting XI: Courtois; Azpilicueta, Christensen, Rüdiger; Moses, Fàbregas, Drinkwater, Alonso; Willian, Hazard, Pedro
Substitutes: Caballero, Cahill, Zappacosta, Emerson, Chalobah, Morata, Giroud
Matchday Thread Rules
We don’t have a lot of rules here, but there are a few things to keep in mind when joining our matchday threads:
Even if the referee sucks or we lose the game, no swearing. It’s just unnecessary. Also, don’t discuss illegal streaming links. Those who do will be warned, and those who post links will be banned. Finally, be nice to each other. This is a Manchester City community and we don’t need to offend one another.
Have fun with the game! COME ON, CITY!