Our 3️⃣ points as Chelsea land first Man City blow ahead of Istanbul | OneFootball

It was an eventful afternoon at The Etihad after Chelsea stunned Manchester City on home soil to deny their title party.

Goals from Hakim Ziyech and Marcos Alonso cancelled out a first-half opener from Raheem Sterling.

Here are three points we took from the game …

Galaxy brain strikes again?

Largely through necessity, Pep Guardiola made nine changes heading into this clash after their exploits in recent weeks. But the formation made little sense to us.

The 50-year-old is known to ‘galaxy brain’ big games and overthink, but Rúben Dias isn’t an overlapping centre back and João Cancelo shouldn’t be playing in central midfield.

Their balance looked off and despite nearly being 2-0 ahead at half time – Agüero panenka blunder aside – they looked vulnerable in behind all afternoon and paid for that.

Hopefully this was just Guardiola trying something new with a forced hand, but it’s another loss to Tuchel and another loss when they should be lifting the title.

Tuchel train keeps rolling

If there was ever an argument for sacking an underperforming manager mid-season (cc: Arsenal) – then your example is here.

Thomas Tuchel hasn’t just revitalised Chelsea, he’s got them into a domestic final, a European final and into the top four driving seat – beating some big managers along the way.

This isn’t just a new manager bounce. They look comfortable in this new system, squad players still make telling contributions and they don’t seem to panic in difficult situations.

With Istanbul approaching, the Blues have landed a crucial first blow. Tuchel seems to have figured Pep out and now the onus is on him to prove otherwise.

Depriving the world

Pep, we know you’re not listening but it’s time to make the call. Put Ederson Santana de Moraes on penalties.

City have now missed nine penalties in the Premier League since the start of last season, and they’re the first side to miss 4+ penalties in consecutive campaigns for 25 years.

You can have all the talent you want – taking spot kicks requires bravery and technique – which Ederson has in abundance.

The Brazilian has put himself forward to take them before and spoke about his consistency in training, so take the plunge!