By Staff Reporter
Chelsea should consider dropping Enzo Fernandez before Raheem Sterling, but at least Romeo Lavia was good. Rico Lewis is even better for Manchester City.
1) The starkest contrasts between the best and very possibly worst-run elite clubs in Europe were evident an hour or so before kick-off and five minutes short of full-time. Chelsea held their own for the most part against Manchester City but that gulf in both on and off-pitch quality was painfully evident by the end.
Barely two years ago, Raheem Sterling became the first signing of the Clearlake era. Ahead of this game his camp felt compelled to release a statement seeking “clarity” over his future after being omitted from the matchday squad. He is Chelsea’s best-paid player, but someone Manchester City were more than happy to offload.
Chelsea were equally desperate to rid themselves of Mateo Kovacic last year; Manchester City duly obliged. He was probably the man of the match, crowning his performance with a goal scored after gliding past £221m worth of a midfield pairing still doing a deeply unconvincing job of replacing him.
Cole Palmer’s success is a relevant and compelling counter-argument but Manchester City are a fine framework in this line of business. If they want to sign a player, do not sell them; if they want to sell a player, that is not necessarily a specific reason to avoid them but it should be kept in mind that there is a reason for it. This was an emphatic example of both points.
2) It is difficult to envisage the Sterling situation ending particularly well. Enzo Maresca called it a “technical decision” to leave the forward out of a 20-man squad whose oldest member was the unused 26-year-old Tosin Adarabioyo. Sterling, 29, has won more trophies (10) than Marc Guiu has made senior top-flight career appearances (seven) but the latter was deemed more suitable for a near half-hour cameo in this fixture – which Sterling scored twice in last season.
Maresca called Sterling one of the “important players” in his squad during a summer in which he featured heavily during pre-season, emphasising how crucial it was to “give him minutes”. If there is an argument that Sterling and his representatives should know better than to stir the pot an hour before the season commences with their reaction, the counter might be that they have received incredibly mixed messages from a manager and club who have certainly found their groove in terms of publicly ostracising many parts of the ‘old’ guard in an effort to force them out.
Chelsea are entitled to try and sell players – if indeed that is their ultimate intention here – but Sterling will feel equally justified in pointing at the three years remaining on the lucrative contract they offered in response. It is not his problem that his club have signed a few more hundred options in his position in the two years since, nor that they are desperately scrambling for financial solutions to fund a masterplan they might suddenly believe has outgrown a player they called “the number one priority” five transfer windows ago.
It is a mess entirely of Chelsea’s own creation and one which could have been avoided at numerous different junctures. They will have a phenomenal U23 side for at least a couple of weeks until Saudi Arabian clubs come to rescue them again, but it feels unlikely that Sterling would accept that escape route.
3) But the whole thing is questionable even on the “technical” level Maresca chose to try and rationalise it. It would make more sense if this was Sterling receiving the same treatment as Conor Gallagher, Romelu Lukaku, Trevoh Chalobah, Armando Broja and any other number of requirement-surplus players, rather than simply not being chosen for the demands of this specific game.
Sterling displayed last season how effective he can be against this team. And while Chelsea fared well at Stamford Bridge, they looked at their most threatening when a fast forward was played into space behind the defence to run into and cut inside from the left before shooting. Neither Nicolas Jackson nor Christopher Nkunku looked convincing or confident doing so when given the opportunity in the space of ten first-half minutes, yet Sterling has spent a healthy portion of a phenomenal career perfecting that same move.
Even playing him centrally would have surely been a better option than Guiu and his six almost completely meaningless touches. That is not to criticise a wholly inexperienced 18-year-old, rather the supposedly serious footballing institution which has spent more than £1bn to end up with him as their back-up centre-forward.
4) It is laughable for Chelsea to have spent such ludicrous sums constructing this squad without landing upon a first-class goalkeeper and striker. It undermines pretty much anything they hope to accomplish, having such volatility inherent in perhaps the two most important and individual positions of their entire team.
Jackson has the potential to be brilliant but his flaws are as obvious as they are prevalent. Robert Sanchez, for it is he pushed to the front of an absurdly busy queue for now, continues to look panicky in possession and suspect as a shot-stopper. It is almost impressive that Chelsea haven’t even just accidentally stumbled upon signing a vaguely consistent striker or reliably competent keeper.
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5) Chelsea have made nine first-team signings this summer compared to Manchester City’s one, so there are no prizes for guessing who named the most debutants in their starting line-up.
Savinho was great fun. There was one deeply awkward tackle on Enzo Fernandez in the vicinity of the area which underlined a certain naivety in his game but the winger impressed, particularly after swapping flanks with Jeremy Doku early on. He gave Marc Cucurella a far more difficult test, bypassing the Spain defender a couple of times before being caught in two minds on the final delivery.
It was a fine account of an obviously exciting player, whose match was cut short at half-time due to a possible injury. That quick break he led on the stroke of half-time with a fast ball into the feet of Doku was a sign of intelligence which should only develop further under Pep Guardiola.
6) That attack broke down when Doku bizarrely delayed the pass to Erling Haaland, who was rampaging through the centre unmarked while chasing the undeniable scent of his second goal. Moises Caicedo did well as the last man but should have been eliminated as a factor by one incisive ball.
It was the story of Doku’s first half and much of the second. His final ball or decision can be infuriating, from the early cross which was far too deep for Haaland to the miscued shot which threatened the corner flag a few minutes later. Another counter on the hour saw Doku fail to read Haaland’s run as Chelsea were let off again.
7) But one thing Doku does not lack is persistence. While some forwards might be disheartened when their inconsistent end product is exposed by a few opportunities going to waste in quick succession, the Belgian is so often on the ball again within a few minutes and working to make something happen.
It was his pass, fortuitously squeezed through to Haaland by Bernardo Silva, which led to the opener, and most notably his hold-up play late on which relieved the pressure on the defence. Doku is a remarkably effective out-ball in those situations and he took care of possession impeccably to take the sting out of any possible Chelsea comeback; only Silva and Phil Foden had more touches from the 80th minute onwards.
8) A semi-regular reminder that using pass statistics out of context is often stupid and completely narrative-driven: Haaland completed three all game. Half of the eight he attempted came after the 90th minute. But there will be no banter tweets or hour-long Monday Night Football analysis because he scored an excellent goal, exhibiting some impressive footwork in the process. He does so far more often than not and that in itself vindicates how he is used, but that will be deliberately forgotten the second he dares to go a single match without scoring (and we will absolutely indulge because his degree of big-game bottling is embarrassing).
9) With that said, Nkunku did not misplace a single one of his 24 passes, an abnormal success rate not only for a forward, but against this opponent. While there were mid-game calls in some quarters for Palmer to be moved to 10 – because the aim must always be to unlock young, creative English players and the solution is only ever to use them centrally – it feels like Nkunku would be far more effective there than out wide given how he uses the ball. But then any attempt to make a modicum of sense of Chelsea’s attacking ingredients is a fool’s errand.
10) Pedro Neto was at least exciting when he replaced Nkunku, putting in one tempting cross which Fernandez should have done better with, setting up the Argentinean for another late shot and almost scoring himself, only for a vital intervention from Rico Lewis.
Not sure he should be any team’s most experienced attacking option for a variety of reasons but there you go. He inspired more hope than Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Renato Veiga and Guiu while chasing a deficit against actual champions Manchester City, at least.
11) Chelsea’s best player by a considerable margin was one they cannot actually be blamed for not using last season despite signing them at great expense. The hijack of Liverpool’s move for Romeo Lavia feels an age ago and on this evidence his injury problems robbed the Blues of a potential answer to their midfield issues.
The Belgian was phenomenally reliable in possession when a select few teammates seemed reticent to accept it if an opponent was within a 10-yard vicinity. Lavia instead used those obstacles to his advantage, and Manchester City’s own academy teachings against them.
Around the half-hour mark, a chorus of groans broke out across Stamford Bridge after Chelsea had spent a couple of minutes on the ball in their own defensive third, searching increasingly desperate for a way out of the press. Lavia moved into space, offered Sanchez an option he could not have grasped at quicker, and then immediately turned to evade Kevin de Bruyne and launch a counter. It was impeccable midfield play and the five-year contract extension will be in the post.
12) That Lavia-Caicedo pivot absolutely has promise; when the former zipped a ball through the lines into Palmer’s feet to start another attack, and the latter kept it alive with some sublime rest defence after City recovered, it was clear to see the workings of a fine partnership. Caicedo really struggled when Lavia was taken off.
Chelsea being Chelsea, the issue in that respect might well be their £106m captain. Fernandez is yet to justify any meaningful fraction of the club’s then-British record outlay and he looked awkward here, constantly miscontrolling the ball and often simply collapsing under any pretence of opposition physicality.
There was one sumptuous delivery on the hour which was bound for Neto but diverted through some sensational defending. Quite how the idea persists that he is most productive as the furthest forward midfielder is a mystery, and most indications in his Chelsea career thus far are that they are better without him. He should have been substituted here rather than any of the four other players who were.
13) Chelsea making him their captain before taking a knee after his summer was also a choice. Not a good one, but a choice nonetheless.
14) Jackson could not have done a great deal better with the chance Ederson saved in the second half, considering it came at him from an awkward angle, but the offside goal really underlined his imperfections. After forming part of a press which robbed Kovacic of the ball in a dangerous area, he floated into an unmarked position on the left and waited as Nkunku set Palmer up for Chelsea’s first shot on target in the 44th minute. Ederson produced a weak parry and Jackson converted, but had strayed beyond Manuel Akanji.
It was a completely needless mistake. Jackson was positioned ideally to look across the line and keep himself onside while still being ready to capitalise on any goalkeeping error. He was naive and drifted, a bystander watching the play unfold rather than considering what part he might still have to play in it.
15) This was as good a time to face Manchester City as any; the absence of Rodri, the obvious rust of numerous tournament players and their tendency to start a season far slower than they finish them meant there was an opportunity for a team which managed to marry competence with fortune for just long enough to secure a result. Guardiola’s side are never there for the taking and it would be wrong to call them vulnerable but there were gaps to be exploited.
The same could, to be fair, be said of a Chelsea side under a new coach with players wholly unfamiliar to one another. It was an inevitably disjointed game for the most part.
But Manchester City overcoming those problems away at a European side without ever really having to move through the gears is foreboding. If this stranglehold on the Premier League trophy has diminished their individual and collective hunger it certainly isn’t showing yet.
16) “Rico, my god” was a fair summary from Guardiola. The 19-year-old Lewis was wonderful at right-back, inverting into midfield with ease and even advancing far enough forward to score a lovely disallowed goal and almost provide Haaland a certain second after a fine bursting run.
Guardiola mentioned his movement after the game and it really is as exemplary as his control, choice of pass and game intelligence. And that touch to steer the low cross away from Neto at the back post when City were only leading by one only underscored his importance. His integration into the team has mirrored the slow burn of Foden and Lewis has all the non-height-based attributes to match that rise too. The number Chelsea must be desperate to pay to sign him has not even been invented yet.
