Blues begin the Premier League season with 2-0 victory over Chelsea away at Stamford Bridge with impressive displays from Kovacic and Lewis, but Chelsea's troubles continue into the new season
City began the Premier League season in style with an impressive 2-0 victory over Chelsea, a team which they struggled against significantly last season, drawing 4-4 and 1-1 respectively. Despite a relatively even game, the Blues came out on top with goals from Haaland and Kovacic sealing the deal to give City three points to start the season.
The Blues suffered a mid-week blow, with Oscar Bobb fracturing his leg in training, ruling him out for 3-5 months. It was also confirmed by Pep Guardiola prior to the game that Rodri would miss the first game as a result of him not training with the squad yet.
City started with Ederson in goal and a defence of Gvardiol, Dias, Akanji and Lewis. Kovacic, Bernardo Silva and Kevin De Bruyne in the midfield, and Doku, Haaland and new signing Savinho as forwards.
Chelsea started the game with two former City players, Cole Palmer and Romeo Lavia in their starting XI, both of whom posed a significant attacking threat. They also featured Euro winner Cucurella and striker Jackson in what was a fairly young team, looking to start their season strongly and improve upon the meagre league positions achieved by a club of their standards in the past two seasons.
City began brightlly with their usual style of possession football, but Chelsea did look dangerous in the early stages too, with a crucial interception needed by Gvardiol in the area to prevent the ball from getting into an area of exploitation. Doku initially started on the right wing and Savinho on the left, but after ten minutes, changed places, with the Belgian struggling to handle Cucurella on the right hand side. This change proved effective, with Savinho providing more of a challenge to Cucurella and Doku being able to move more freely in his natural position.
It wasn’t long after this change that the first goal was scored. A pass from Doku fell to Haaland, who moved to the left of Cucurella and dinked it over Chelsea goalkeeper Sanchez to give City the 1-0 lead after 19 minutes.
City enjoyed another spell of possession after the goal was scored and were looking for another, but Chelsea held firm and quickly regained concentration, putting the Blues on the back foot. Chelsea’s attacks came with frustrating officiating from referee Anthony Taylor and the linesmen, however. An offside delay lasting almost a whole minute following a ball played through to Jackson leading to a genuine goalscoring opportunity for Nkunku, agitating both teams.
Chelsea were later foiled by offside again on the brink of half time. A shot from Palmer was parried away by Ederson but fell to Jackson, who put the ball into the net to level the scores only for Chelsea celebrations to be cut short with yet another offside flag raised.
Chelsea’s pursuit for an equaliser did not die down in the second half, with continued pressure towards the City goal. Similarly to the FA cup semi-final, it was not Jackson’s day in front of goal, after yet another attempt was saved by goalkeeper Ederson to deny him once more. At times both in the first and second half, it became apparent that Chelsea wanted a penalty, notably when a cross into the City area was blocked by the elbow of former Chelsea man Kovacic which raised some eyebrows. Referee Taylor waved this off with the home side continuing to be denied a leveller.
It was Kovacic who would go on to finish the game and seal a victory for City, with an impressive run through Chelsea’s midfield and a shot from outside the box which Robert Sanchez should’ve done better. The Spanish keeper initially got a hand to it, but deflected it off the post and in the net to give City the 2-0 lead.
A final shot from Enzo was comfortably caught by Ederson confirmed the victory for City. This was the perfect start to the season for the champions, with a positive goal difference of two and a win against Chelsea, who they of course couldn’t beat in the league the season.
For Chelsea boss Maresca, a former City assistant himself, a taste of the magnitude of the task in front of him, to restore his side into contention and raise their position in the league certainly did not get off to a good start with a defeat.