LONDON: This highly entertaining game had everything in it. There was excitement, tension, drama and a cluster of goals, the football was simply scintillating. It was perhaps, appropriate that honours were shared at 4-4. Gaining a point from the game, Manchester City continue to lead the Premier League while Chelsea remain unpredictable halfway up the table.
Chelsea manager, Mauricio Pochettino said: “Everyone is so proud to be involved. It shows why it’s the best league in the world. The players deserve full credit because the performance was amazing. We faced a team that, for me, is the best in the world.
“We showed the character, showed that we have also tools against a team like Manchester City to go for the goal and to dominate and have the capacity to create chances. From (last) Monday (a 4-1 win at Tottenhan), maybe it’s point to start building our confidence and to believe in the way we are working. Now it’s translating how we will compete in the future.”
Pochettino very strongly protested to the fourth official at the final whistle and was booked for it. He felt the referee should have given a freekick a few seconds earlier for a foul. He said: “I felt Raheem (Stirling) could go through to score the fifth. I deserve to be booked because I crossed the limit. It’s not a good image for me and for football.”
In the heat of the moment, he forgot to shake hands with the City Manager, Pep Guardiola. He said: “I want to apologise to him also because in this moment I didn’t see him”. Guardiola responded: “No problem, it’s fine. Emotions, it happens to me sometimes. It’s fine.”
While the game was full of life from the start, it wasn’t quite as frenetic until the sequence of the eight goals. City went into the lead in the 25th minute when Marc Cucurella appeared to pull Erling Haaland’s shirt in the box as he met a shot from Bernardo Silva. A long VAR check awarded the penalty which Haaland converted
But four minutes later, Chelsea were level. A curling freekick from Reece James was superbly tipped over by Ederson for a corner. From a crowded box, Thiago Silva made a clever move to the near post to meet the shot and a glancing header was in the net.
Chelsea took the lead in the 37th minute. Cole Palmer passed to James who went past Josko Gvardiol and put in a low cross for Stirling to tap in. But in the added time to the first half, Manuel Akanji found himself unmarked for a header to bring both sides level at halftime.
Two minutes after the restart, Haaland scored his 49th goal from 48 Premier League matches. Julian Alvarez, receiving a pass from Phil Foden, crossed low from the right which Haaland met and bizarrely bundled in sliding over the line on his backside along with the ball, 2-3.
The goal fest continued 20 minutes later. Moises Caicedo fed a short pass to Conor Gallagher whose powerful 25-yard shot rebounded from Ederson in the goal to Nicolas Jackson who promptly drove in his shot, 3-3.
It seemed all over with just four minutes of normal time remaining when Rodri’s shot was deflected into the Chelsea goal off Thiago Silva but the fight was still left in the London side. Armando Broja was recklessly tackled by Rubin Dias and the following spot kick was calmly, under pressure, converted by the cool Palmer. The fans couldn’t have been better entertained.
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