Bernardo and De Bruyne push Chelsea into the creek

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The highest levels of Manchester City's game coincide with the moments when Guardiola blindly trusted Bernardo Silva.

When he was not displaced to the extreme position or, worse, when he was treated like any other worker, relegating him to the substitution in personnel management rotation cycles that brought so little benefit to the team when the sidelined was the Portuguese.

Having overcome the psychological experiments and the episodes of melancholy that they brought about, City has not stopped growing for a year.

The victory against Chelsea, this Saturday in the Premier, confirms a collective progression triggered by the prodigious left foot of Bernardo, the genius of rhythm that amalgamates everything from the midfield, accompanied this time by De Bruyne, the man of the definitive actions , author of 1-0.

MNCM.

City

one

Ederson Moraes, Laporte, Cancelo, John Stones, Walker, Grealish, De Bruyne (Gündogan, min. 83), Bernardo Silva, Sterling, Rodrigo and Foden (Gabriel Jesus, min. 87)

Che Chelsea

0

Arrizabalaga, Malang Sarr, Rüdiger, Thiago Silva, Azpilicueta, Marcos Alonso (Mason Mount, min. 80), Kante, Kovacic, Christian Pulisic (Timo Werner, min. 68), Hakim Ziyech (Callum Hudson Odoi, min. 68) and Lukaku

Goals

1-0 min.

69: De Bruyne.

Referee

Craig Pawson

Yellow cards Marcos Alonso (min. 6) and Kovacic (min. 31)

City have long since become the best-playing team in the world. That he lost the Champions League final against Chelsea only highlights the random nature of the results, not of the game, which usually rewards the best at long distances. Winners at Porto and losers at the Etihad, Chelsea were still in second place at the end of the match, but 13 points lower in the standings. Sunk in a whirlpool of internal conflicts that turn his fight for the Premier into a chimera.

Tuchel said on Friday that he had learned a lesson from the first leg loss at Stamford Bridge in September. He learned, he said, that against City it is not convenient to overload the defensive framework at the cost of taking away the tools of his players to take the initiative. His speech was pleasing to the ears of fans and leaders, who demand more action and less contraction. But the facts showed that Tuchel really doesn't think he has anything to change. After all, why change the formula that allowed him to win the last Champions League by playing on the counterattack?

The question is pertinent because from Roman Abramovich to the employees who encourage his sports management, the conviction spreads that Tuchel has lost the rudder.

Tormented by the contradiction between what is politically convenient and what his nature demands of him, Tuchel spent half a game somatizing his overflowing emotions with fuss.

Apparently irritated with his players.

Whether it was because Lukaku didn't get away on time or because Thiago Silva pushed his defense too far back, the coach jumped to the sideline to gesticulate effusively.

He seemed less attentive to reality than to the recording of the television cameras, in charge of showing the audiences that he asks his soccer players to go out, to attack, to deploy in the opposite field, but that they do not pay attention to him.

Tuchel signals his players

“We had nine chances to make transitions and we didn't manage to touch the ball once in the opponent's area”, lamented Tuchel after the match.

“Because we lacked rhythm and precision.

That was the serious thing.

I'm not worried that we lose chances but that we don't believe them”.

It was amazing that a manager who wants to attack with rhythm and precision did not seek a line-up with Jorginho, whom he left on the bench, nor provide more order than an ultra-conservative 5-4-1 scheme, where all starting maneuvers are they stuck unless someone found a way to hit the distant Lukaku with a pitch.

Insecure as Kanté and Kovacic failed to find Ziyech and Pulisic in mid-positions, alarmed by the evidence of the lack of security in each ball combination, Thiago Silva, Rudiger and Azpilicueta were quick to make the most prudent decision. Between going out and staying to protect their area, they stayed. And the further back they got, the further away Lukaku was, who finished the game with a single shot between the three sticks. Chelsea's only noteworthy shot, after the break, the result of a counterattack book. Ederson deflected it and the score remained 0-0, resisting the invasive evidence of Bernardo Silva and his crew, with Sterling in a very prominent role as the most unbalancing player in the final meters.

Chelsea got into their bunker with no more automatism than filtering the rival's associations so that Kepa received forced shots.

In this, everyone behaved in an impeccable way, tight, disciplined, dedicated, and even so they could not prevent Grealish from going hand in hand with the Spanish goalkeeper after a poor delivery by Kovacic in an attempt to break De Bruyne's pressure. and Bernard.

Only the shrinking and elasticity of Kepa, who covered all the angles with his legs and arms, deflected a shot that seemed destined to open the scoring.

Guardiola: "We beat them in a transition"

Tuchel had just made a double substitution (Pulisic and Ziyech out, Werner and Hudson-Odoi in) when Kepa's second long throw-in ended up in the possession of Rodri, who gave it to De Bruyne in the opposite half. The backlash cut the most feared pressure node in the Premier in half. The Belgian's slalom, barely harassed by a claw from Kanté, caught the brooding Kovacic off guard and startled Thiago Silva. Taking advantage of the gap, De Bruyne armed his right hand and twisted the ball with the inside, sending it like a bullet stuck to the far post. Kepa stretched as much as he could to no avail.

“They are the European champions deservedly”, Guardiola said in the conference room, after the triumph.

“They defend amazingly well when they get behind and in a transition they beat you.

Today we beat them in a transition, but we defended very well with the high block”.

The 1-0 locked up the paradox of football: the counterattacker lost by counterattack.

It was final.

There were 20 minutes left but they only served for the conqueror of the last Champions League final to show his impotence against the loser without either of them betraying their way of understanding football.

Coutinho comes back against United

The day left Chelsea out of the race for the title and slowed Manchester United's timid advance towards the poor goal that remains in his campaign: getting into European competition positions.

Rangnick's team was leading 0-2 at Villa when Steven Gerrard brought in Phil Coutinho, recently on loan from Barcelona, ​​in the 68th minute.

The Brazilian uncovered himself and, incidentally, buried United.

First with an assist to Jacob Ramsey and then with a goal, 2-2, which closed the match, in the 81st minute. Now United are seventh with 32 points, three behind fifth-placed Arsenal.

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