This was not so much a victory as an evisceration. It was not so much a defeat as a demolition. Manchester City returned to the top of the Premier League, with another Sergio Aguero hat-trick, and did so by destroying Chelsea.
They humiliated them and their head coach Maurizio Sarri – and that is dangerous territory for a club with Chelsea’s ambition and, even more so, expectation.
It was a result that kept Chelsea out of the top four, and actually dropped them down to sixth on goal difference, for the first time this season but it was also the kind of defeat that raises serious questions over where they are heading and whether Sarri will be able to convince them he can continue after this campaign. It was that brutal.
Sarri-ball was deconstructed in 25 devastating minutes. Whatever the excuses, the mitigation, the understandable arguments over giving Sarri time – and the players – to execute his precise brand of football big teams do not get taken apart like this. And, as beautifully as City played, not this easily.
Pep Guardiola’s tutoring of City also took time and maybe Chelsea will look to that but, if they do, it will be the first time in the history of Roman Abramovich’s ownership.
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