Manchester City Match From The Past- Blues In Fake Victory

August 16^th 2015

For this week’s Match from the Past, we travel back just four years to August 2015 and City’s home clash with Chelsea. The blues had finished second the previous season to Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea, who had taken the Premier League title by eight points.

City had started their season with a 3-0 win at West Brom six days earlier, while Chelsea’s had started with controversy. A 2-2 home draw with Swansea was dominated by Mourinho’s reaction to club doctor Eva Carneiro’s on-field intervention and her subsequent demotion, leading to some to say that the Portuguese had lost it.

But there was no denying City’s victory, as much as Mourinho tried, as the blues threw down the gauntlet to the rest of the Premier League with an emphatic win over the champions. Sergio Aguero had been denied three times by visiting keeper Asmir Begovic, but the Argentine striker finally beat him in the 31^st minute.

Aguero played a 1-2 with Yaya Toure just inside the Chelsea area and the City striker turned his marker and slotted home left footed, despite being surrounded by three Chelsea men.

City continued to dominate the first half, but Chelsea did have the ball in the net four minutes into the second half as Ramires poked the ball home. The linesman’s flag was up straight away, and replays showed the decision to be correct as two Chelsea men were offside.

Joe Hart was called into action to deny Diego Costa and equaliser and just two minutes later, City extended their lead. David Silva’s corner was expertly headed home by skipper Vincent Kompany and that was the goal which ended Chelsea’s resistance, while Kompany celebrated in his usual way like he’d just scored the winner in the Cup Final.

There was more to come from City as Chelsea capitulated. The blues stopped a Chelsea attack and a lightning quick break ended when Chelsea failed to effectively clear the ball, the defender dithered and David Silva stole in and passed to Fernandinho, who rifled the ball past Begovic from outside the penalty area.

After the match, City manager Manuel Pellegrini praised visiting keeper Begovic for his performance, stating that without him it would have been more, while Mourinho described the result as fake and that Chelsea did to City in the second half what the blues did to them in the first.

Final Score: Manchester City 3-0 Chelsea