Conte concedes ‘unstoppable’ City too good for Chelsea

– Sane stands out –

Just as in a 3-0 win at Arsenal on Thursday, Leroy Sane was the inspiration for much of City’s best attacking play.

Sane created the hosts’ first big chance 21 minutes in when he slalomed past three Chelsea defenders before feeding Bernardo Silva, whose shot dipped just too late and dropped onto the roof of the net.

The German thought he had opened the scoring just before the half-hour mark when he caught Kevin De Bruyne’s cross flush, but Chelsea captain Cesar Azpilicueta bailed out his side with an excellent goal-line clearance.

A grind out victory! #mancity pic.twitter.com/MK2FwUdIc2

— Manchester City (@ManCity) March 4, 2018

So anonymous were Chelsea as an attacking threat that their own fans sarcastically cheered when a rare foray forward earned a corner just before the break.

However, Conte’s contain and counter-attack game plan was undone within a minute of the second period when Sergio Aguero’s reverse pass picked out David Silva and his namesake Bernardo knocked the ball into the ground and over the helpless Thibaut Courtois for his seventh goal of the season.

Thereafter, City were quite content to keep possession as Chelsea still refused to abandon their cautious approach.

Conte eventually introduced Giroud with 12 minutes remaining, whilst Chelsea’s club-record signing Morata had to wait until the final minute to get on.

But even then it was top scorer Eden Hazard who was sacrificed and the Belgian cut a frustrated figure as he trudged off in the pouring rain.

The visitors could, though, have snatched an unlikely point in stoppage time only for Marcos Alonso’s mishit strike from the edge of the box to dribble wide.