Man City 1-3 Chelsea
This was probably the best game of football that I've seen this season. It might not have had the most goals, or the most entertainment, but in terms of quality on display, and in terms of stakes and intensity, this was certainly the best game of football that has been put on this season. It would be easy to look at this game as a masterclass from Chelsea, as they turned in a brilliant second half display that saw them come from 1-0 down to see off their fellow title favourites Man City. But that would be a mistake. Whilst Chelsea turned in a very impressive performance, City's role in this match, nor their continued interest in the Premier League title, cannot be underestimated.
It was City who played the better football in the first half, and City who went 1-0 up when Jesus Navas' low cross was haplessly volleyed into his own net by Gary Cahill. It was a deserved lead, as City had knocked on the door in the first half and were extremely unfortunate not to have a penalty before half time. Moreover, although Eden Hazard missed arguably the best chance of the half, David Luiz was bafflingly not sent off for a clear piece of obstruction on Sergio Aguero, who would almost certainly have scored had he been allowed through, after a poor piece of defending from Azpilicueta.
Chelsea's luck carried over into the second period as City threatened to run riot, Cahill in particular all over the place at the back as Kevin De Bruyne and Sergio Aguero both were denied by Courtois. But the best chance to kill the game came when a magnificent passage of play from Gundogan and Silva led to a wicked cross from Navas, only for De Bruyne to hit the bar sliding in unmarked at the far post. It was a guilt-edged chance, and one that City were made to pay for.
Because whilst both teams had chances to win the match, it was Chelsea who took theirs. A fabulous ball from Cesc Fabregas freed Diego Costa, who held off Otamendi and rifled home brilliantly. And it was Costa at the heart of things again as a brilliant pass, again whilst preventing the hapless Otamendi from doing anything, freed Willian, whose run wasn't tracked by Kolarov. Willian rifled home and Chelsea had the lead.
And so Chelsea turned on their clinical counter-attacking style, and got their reward late on as City knocked on the door at the other end, Hazard sprinting clear of the lethargic Kolarov to slam home a third. And whilst neither team will have been happy with their overall defending, it was City's back three that fell apart under pressure, allowing Chelsea to score the three goals required to take control of the title race.
But, despite the result, and despite the ugly scenes that followed, as Sergio Aguero picked up a four match ban for a truly horrible tackle on David Luiz, with Fernandinho also seeing red, City cannot be written off yet. For starters, the gap is only four points, and we've only played fourteen games. Chelsea may have won eight games in a row now, and looked imperious in doing so, but they have not looked unbeatable and sooner or later they will slip up. Should something happen to Costa, or Hazard, or worse both, then they may find that the goals begin to dry up. Moreover, there were signs in this game that the right team can really expose the defensive frailties that exist in this team.
In any case, City should not take this defeat as a sign that they are not up there. They matched Chelsea stride for stride. This was not a victory for one set of tactics over another, this was not the game where Chelsea showed their overall superiority in any facet of the game. What it was, was a game where human error decided it. The referee made two or three critical errors in Chelsea's favour in the first half, Sergio Aguero and Kevin De Bruyne, who are world class players, two of the very best in the league, made errors in the second half. City could and should have been off into the sunset but they weren't. Chelsea made errors too of course, but the fact that on the day they made less errors than their opponents is not necessarily indicative of their overall quality in comparison. To suggest that for example Costa is better than Aguero based on such a small sample size would be patently ridiculous. Nevertheless, on the day, Costa was the one who shone, and Aguero the one disgraced.
None of this is to take anything away from Chelsea, who overall deserved to win on the day. Costa was absolutely immense, Hazard and Willian clinical, and if David Luiz was lucky to be on the pitch then truthfully he was one of the best players on it, and did nothing wrong for the incident that should have led to his dismissal, it was Azpilicueta's error not his.
But the fact that remains is that whilst Chelsea will finish this weekend heavy favourites for the title, and deservedly so, Manchester City will not count themselves out yet. These are the two best teams in the Premier League at the moment, and they will probably be the top two in May. But which way round, for me at least, was not decided in this fixture.
West Ham 1-5 Arsenal
Whilst Chelsea were busy establishing their title credentials, Arsenal were busy re-establishing theirs. The Gunners are now 13 games unbeaten in the league, as they swept aside a frankly awful West Ham side. Nevertheless, the manner of their victory was still extremely impressive, as Alexis Sanchez turned on the style with a second half hat-trick to put the hapless Hammers to the sword.
Sanchez is a world class talent, and has always been one of the Premier League's best players, but in a season where Hazard, Coutinho, De Bruyne, Costa, Aguero, Mane et al have all been phenomenal, Sanchez's quality has almost drifted under the radar until this visceral performance. That's not to say that Sanchez isn't one of the standout candidates to be the league's best player, but since there are at least half a dozen answers to the question: "who is the Premier League's best player?" that deserve a reasonable level of respect, I think it would be short-sighted to look at this performance and label Sanchez the league's best, just as it's short-sighted to say Costa is the league's best because of his role in dismantling Man City.
But nevertheless Sanchez, aided by terrific performances from Ozil and Oxlade-Chamberlain, systematically took a West Ham side completely unable to defend apart, to move Arsenal second in the Premier League table. Sanchez scored three sumptuous goals, and Oxlade-Chamberlain put in a rocket, as the game fell away from the Hammers in the second half.
Arsenal aren't being considered serious title candidates at the moment for the usual reasons. Bad performances recently against Man United and Spurs, coupled with dodgy European and Cup form, have made people question their resolve. And whilst there is certainly a case to be made that Arsenal haven't done anything to convince people that they won't bottle any opportunity that they have to win the league, equally the point can be made that it's only December, and Arsenal have only lost one game out of fourteen this season. I don't think that this particular performance is enough to say that Arsenal are serious title contenders, but equally I think that on a weekend where two of their other rivals showed why they might not win the league, this display cannot be ignored, any more than draws against United or Spurs can be ignored. Arsenal have lost one game this season, a game that they lost without a central defence, against arguably the best attack in the league. It's time to take them seriously. At least until they bottle it in March again.
Everton 1-1 Man United
I'm getting bored of talking about Man United by now to be honest. I'm not sure that there's much left to say. A lack of attacking cohesion, a lack of goalscoring threat, giving away cheap goals when in good positions. But nevertheless, this was a game that I watched live, so am in a much better position to talk about that the potentially more interesting relegation battle games that I've only seen short highlights of.
I felt I might have being harsh when I said in my preview that this would be a pretty poor game between two average sides. But that was exactly what it ended up being. Both goals were scored because of awful defensive errors, the first a catastrophic decision by Stekelenburg to come out and let Ibrahimovic chip him (which the Swede did magnificently) and the second a stupid tackle from Fellaini to give away a blatant penalty.
That's not to say that it was a total stinker, as both sides created some decent chances. But neither side's attacking threat is overwhelming this season, evidenced by the fact that United are the league's joint 8th highest scorers, and Everton are joint 11th. Both keepers were forced into saves, with De Gea in particular doing brilliantly to deny the lively Kevin Mirallas, and Ander Herrera at the other end crashed a shot against the post, but neither side created enough to win the game.
In truth, this was a game that was talked about more for the worse aspects of the game. Away from the individual errors that cost both teams goals, there could easily have been three red cards in this game, with Marcus Rojo going in for a two-footer lunge that would have been the worst tackle of the season had we not witnessed Aguero trying to snap Luiz in two and Neil Taylor nearly decapitate Kyle Walker just a day earlier; Gareth Barry committing about a dozen bookable offences, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic deciding to concuss Seamus Coleman whilst they were on the ground.
In the end it's rather fitting that this was a game decided by the stupidity of Marouanne Fellaini, given that it was a game in which both sides made poor decisions, made ridiculously poor tackles, and overall just looked slightly lumbering and ineffective.
But this does a disservice to the excellence of both sides' defences, and truthfully both teams defended well. Phil Jones was excellent at one end, Funes Mori majestic at the other (and a clear winner of the man of the match award for me) with both teams defensive midfielders, Carrick and Idrissa Gueye starring in their respective displays.
If neither of these teams will be challenging for Champions League football at the end of the season, and the fact that they are nine and ten points off the top four whilst playing significantly worse suggests that they won't be, they should at the very least be occupying the 6th and 7th spots, as it's hard to imagine the likes of West Brom and Watford, as good as they've been up until now, offering a sustained challenge for the Europa spots.
The Hard and Fast Section
- Tomorrow: England are good at rugby.
- Nico Rosberg is gone. Shockwaves in the F1 world.
- Steve Smith is very very good at cricket.
- Swansea are dead in the water. They. Cannot. Defend.
- Sunderland will inexplicably stay up. Because Sunderland.
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