Manchester City opened their latest Premier League title defence with victory over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in Enzo Mareca’s first game as manager on Sunday.
In their quest to win a fifth consecutive Premier League title, Manchester City rarely got out of second gear against a Chelsea side whose starting XI featured no new signings despite their significant summer spending.
Neither team made an electric start to the game, but City’s air of inevitability didn’t take long to produce a goal with Haaland taking advantage of a bit of luck and a flick from Bernardo to hold off a defender or two and smuggle the ball beyond Sánchez in the 18th minute.
The pace of the game didn’t change much with the goal, which only favoured the visitors. De Bruyne came close with a customary long-range effort against us while Sánchez pulled off an excellent stop just past the half-hour mark on a deflected shot.
Chelsea finally started to threaten a bit in the final 5-10 minutes of the half, and even had the ball in the back of the net, but Jackson had lazily strayed offside on Palmer’s initial shot. Just needed a bit more focus in that moment.
The second half continued in much the same fashion until the introduction of Pedro Neto around the hour-mark, with Chelsea coming close twice in quick succession. Further changes would arrive, but we would fail to find the necessary breakthrough.
City’s second five minutes from time settled the contest: Mateo Kovačić intercepting a poor ball out, running easily through midfield and not getting closed down. He didn’t score many, but that may be one of the easier ones.
