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Manchester City’s unbeaten start to their Premier League season came to an end on Saturday as they lost 2-0 to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, despite dominating large portions of the game, and there was one tactical mistake that Pep Guardiola made that cost his side.
The Citizens started the game at a blistering tempo, but Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane both squandered chances to take the lead. Then, with just a minute left of the first-half, David Luiz’s pinpoint cross-field diagonal opened up the City defence.
Spanish winger Pedro took the ball down before finding Willian, and Eden Hazard eventually carried the ball into the box before laying it back for N’Golo Kante to slam home.
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Chelsea never really got hold of the game, in fact they only had 38 per cent of the possession, but they always looked the more likely to get the next goal. It eventually arrived in the 78th minute as centre-back David Luiz rose highest from a corner to glance the ball home.
The mistake that Guardiola made though was playing 33-year-old Fernandinho in central midfield alongside the attack-minded David Silva and Bernardo Silva.
The Brazilian certainly had a good game, but given that the Catalan boss likes to play with attacking full-backs, he was essentially being asked to play as a third defender whilst also covering the whole of the midfield.
This was exploited by Chelsea for the first goal. Fernandinho did his job as he dropped onto the penalty spot to head away the initial cross from Willian, but when Hazard played the ball back into space there was no defensively-minded midfielder there to track the run of Kante.
Looking at the stats, it is hard to criticise Fernandinho at all. Defensively, he made six tackles, two clearances and one interception. However, the end result of the game proves that against the top six, Guardiola must offer him more protection.
Fernandinho has been a fantastic servant for City, and it is credit to him that he still seems to be at the top of his game, but given his age he will burn out quicker than he used to, and he cannot be asked to cover so often when the opposition have quality in midfield.
