Man City 1-0 Chelsea
Bernardo Silva scored the only goal as Manchester City took another stride towards the Premier League title with a 1-0 victory over lacklustre Chelsea.
The scoreline did not reflect City's dominance of a one-sided contest at the Etihad Stadium, with fading champions Chelsea offering little as they slipped to a fourth defeat in five league games.
The visitors did at least make City dig deep for their victory as, playing without a recognised striker they sat back, but Silva's 46th-minute breakthrough was no less than the hosts deserved.
It extended City's lead at the top of the table to 18 points and left them only four wins from the title, while Chelsea were cut five points adrift of the top four in fifth place.
A waste of Hazard
If Real Madrid come calling for Eden Hazard in the summer then the Belgian international might look towards the 1-0 Manchester City defeat for a reason to leave.
Again Antonio Conte decided to use the 27-year-old in the false nine role, and to be honest it was a complete waste of the player’s talents and ability.
Hazard is one of the best players in the Premier League with the ball at his feet, but instead he had to watch the ball sail over his head or drift down the sides with no chance of him being able to get to it.
He also had to battle the City defence with balls at head height and it was just a complete waste for him in one of the biggest games of the season.
Of all the players you’d want to get into attacking positions and with the ball at his feet running at the City defence, it would have been Hazard.
Do you really think Zinedine Zidane would have played the winger in that role for Madrid? Never. And that is something that could be in the back of Hazard’s mind.
Why no Giroud?
It was no surprise what City were going to do to Chelsea when the visitors have the ball in defence, and that was pressurise Thibaut Courtois and the centre-backs into mistakes.
It worked perfectly and the Blues had absolutely now way of getting out. You could say that it might have been noteworthy that Chelsea continued to at least try to play out from the back, but it got them nowhere.
The only out ball was to Marcos Alonso with the long pass from Courtois to the left, but if the Spaniard did win the header then there was another City player to pick up the pieces.
That’s why it seemed strange not to play Olivier Giroud to at least have the breathing space if they needed. For all of Conte’s want for a target man over the January transfer window, the game that he really could have been used and been really influential, he was sitting on the bench.
Courtois could have used Giroud to hit and then hold the ball up, bringing the likes of Willian and Hazard into play. The Frenchman has to be used more than he is at the moment, and it made little sense for him to be sitting on the bench.
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