Manchester City have continued on winning ways as they defeat Chelsea at Etihad after winning the Premier League title.
Manchester City went into the game as 2022/23 Premier League champions after Arsenal surrendered the title on a platter following a shock defeat to Nottingham Forest at City Ground.
The mood at Etihad among City fans were that of jubilations.
After coming out from the tunnel ahead of the game, Chelsea lined up and mounted a guard of honor for City.
Pep Guardiola wrought enormous changes to the Manchester City squad that destroyed Real Madrid 4-0 in Champions League semifinal second leg.
Guardiola retained only Manuel Akanji and Kyle Walker in the squad while the likes of Erling Haaland, Bernardo Silva, Jack Grealish, Kevin Definitely Bruyne, and other top first team players were on the substitute bench.
Manchester City lineup: Stefan Ortega; Kyle Walker, Manuel Akanji, Aymeric Laporte, Sergio Gomez; Rico Lewis, Kalvin Phillips, Phil Foden; Riyad Mahrez, Julian Alvarez, Cole Palmer.
Frank Lampard made five changes to the squad that drew with Nottingham Forest at Stamford Bridge.
Kepa Arrizabalaga was back in goal. Loftus-Cheek, Fofana, and Azpilicueta were introduced into the defense while Kai Havertz started on the attack.
Chelsea starting lineup: Kepa Arrizabalaga; Trevoh Chalobah, Thiago Silva, Wesley Fofana; Cesar Azpilicueta, Enzo Fernandez, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Lewis Hall; Conor Gallagher; Kai Havertz, Raheem Sterling.
Despite fielding youngsters against the London club with no regular presence in Manchester City lineup, Pep Guardiola had the game firmly in control from the start.
City were dominant, forcing Chelsea to concede an early corner in the 3rd minute of play.
Palmer beat Azpilicueta and charged through the defense before attempting a pass to Ryad Mahrez. His teammate Kalvin Philips cut in and collected the ball before having his shot deflected off goal for a corner kick. They took the corner-kick but it was cleared.
In the 7th minute, Phil Foden charged in close to Chelsea box before locating Riyad Mahrez who pinned Kyle Walker on the overlap but Walker’s attempt was cleared by Gallagher for a corner-kick.
After a marathon of pressure from the Citizens, they finally took the lead in the 12th minute. Chelsea cheaply lost possession at the middle of the park with Palmer pacing forward with the ball unmarked. He passed it to Julian Alvarez who then slot into the far corner pass Kepa to give Manchester City the lead.
Manchester City continued to dominate play despite leading by a lone goal but Chelsea were able to hold off the pressure.
The first half ended with City taking a deserved 1-0 lead into the break.
Manchester City were back for business in the second half as they started on a good note as well dominating proceedings.
Chelsea began to make inroads into the game as the game progressed through the second half.
Raheem Sterling went close to netting the equaliser for the Blues in the 65th minute when he beat Kyle Walker and fired on goal. The ball squeezed pass Ortega underneath and rolled towards goal but John Stones was able to get back to it and clear it off the line. Meanwhile, the offside flag was up. It wouldn’t have been a goal anyway.
Manchester City doubled the lead in the 71st minute with Julian Alvarez again on the scoresheet but the goal was ruled out after VAR check.
Both sides made late changes with less than 15 minutes left to play. City still held on to their narrow 1-0 lead but the game was largely open on both ends.
While the Premier League champions made attempts to double the lead, Chelsea ramped up efforts to find an equaliser.
Julian Alvarez’s first-half strike was all City needed to grab a win over Chelsea as they continue in their triumphant Premier League run after winning the title.
The match ended with the Premier League champions grabbing a deserved 1-0 win.
