Key events
87 min: Rodri crosses from the left. Haaland competes. So does Silva. Neither can win a header. Chelsea clear … though there’s nobody upfield, and they can’t get out. City will come straight back at them.
85 min: Silva is booked for clipping the heel of Caicedo. The hunter hunted.
84 min: Hats off to Lee Madden (80 min) for prescience. Rodri celebrated just as he did in the Champions League final. He knows how important that could be. And there’s still plenty of time to turn one point into three!
GOAL! Manchester City 1-1 Chelsea (Rodri 82)
The ball pinballs around the Chelsea box. It breaks to Rodri on the edge of the area. He sends a rising screamer towards the top left. It takes a small deflection off Chalobah before almost ripping the net. It was heading in anyway. That had been coming!
82 min: Casadei comes on for Jackson.
81 min: Haaland keeps the ball from going out wide right of the Chelsea goal. He boots it straight into Chilwell’s startled mug, then claims a penalty for handball. Nope.
80 min: Silva curls in from the right. A shot-cum-cross that floats harmlessly wide left of the target. City have done everything but score. “As a Chelsea fan, I genuinely think taking Palmer and Sterling off will turn out to be a bad decision,” worries Lee Madden. “They were our most dangerous players and we’re giving City something. To worry about. It feels like only a matter of time before City score.”
79 min: Haaland has missed two huge chances this evening. Very strange. You’ll not see the like of this too often.
78 min: City keep on coming at Chelsea, who are beginning to ask for trouble in sitting back. Doku crosses from the left. Disasi clears. Then De Bruyne picks up possession on the left. He curls a glorious cross towards Haaland, who flies in to meet it, six yards out … only to power a header high and wide left! The entire stadium waited for the net to billow, only for nothing to happen. What a miss!
76 min: Corner for City on the left. De Bruyne and Foden play it short, then switch it towards Silva, to the right of the D. Silva returns it. The ball sails wide left of goal. Petrovic ushers it out of play.
75 min: Silva jigs down the left and dinks a cross towards … nobody in particular. On the touchline, an agitated Pep is on the prowl. He’s earned himself the wrath of the fourth official for stepping outside of his technical area. No official censure, though.
74 min: Chelsea take a little bit of sting from the game with some patient possession in midfield.
72 min: De Bruyne crosses low from the right. Silva prepares to slam home from close range, only for Colwill to extend a leg and divert the ball back to his keeper. The defender celebrates his intervention as he might a goal.
71 min: Palmer is replaced by Chalobah, who comes on and passes on a tactical tweak: it’s time for Chelsea to switch to a back five.
69 min: De Bruyne wins a corner down the right. It ends up being a non-event.
68 min: Jackson strides down the left but can’t get past Walker. He pulls back for Fernandez – all friends again – but what follows is neither shot nor pass to Nkunku. Chelsea pass up yet another opportunity to put some navy-blue water between the teams.
66 min: Nkunku is found in the City box by Gallagher’s right-wing cross. Instead of making an immediate scoring impact, he takes a heavy touch and is blocked out of it by Akanji. The ball breaks left to Jackson, who prepares to shoot only for the in-rushing Fernandez to step in and lash a wild shot off target himself! Jackson is beyond livid, hopping around, effing and jeffing in the direction of his team-mate. As it turns out, Nkunku was offside initially, so had any of them scored, it would have been chalked off. But still. What a business!
65 min: Silva comes on for Alvarez. Then suddenly Haaland is sent into the box from the left by Doku. His rising strike from a tight angle pings off Disasi and is turned around the post by Petrovic’s strong hand. Nothing comes of the resulting corner.
64 min: The goalscorer Sterling leaves to pantomime boos. Nkunku comes on in his place. A reminder that Nkunku has previous here.
62 min: Rodri lashes a speculative shot wide left. Petrovic again takes an age over the restart, and this time goes into the book for time-wasting.
61 min: Doku crosses long from the left. Foden sweeps a first-time shot towards the bottom left. Disasi half blocks. Chilwell then denies the lurking Haaland. This is relentless!
60 min: Doku shimmies in from the left and dinks a clever ball down the channel for Akanji, who looks for Haaland in the middle with a low cross. Cleared. Then Palmer drags back Ake in the midfield, and goes into the book.
58 min: Rodri swans in from the left and thinks about shooting, only to be denied by Gallagher. Doku then probes down the same wing. Chelsea hold their shape. This game is poised perfectly and could topple in either direction. It’s great fun. Can these two play each other every week?
56 min: Gusto crosses low from the right. Sterling tries to ram home from six yards only for Ederson to parry brilliantly. The ball breaks to Chilwell on the left. Chilwell attempts to force home from a tight angle, but the keeper is all over that one as well. Ederson single-handedly keeps City within touching distance!
54 min: Ake’s presence out on the left earns a City corner. De Bruyne’s delivery is no good, and Chelsea flood upfield. Jackson has the opportunity to send Sterling clear down the middle, but overcooks the pass. Sterling cocks his head back in annoyance, a Pez dispenser of frustration.
52 min: Jackson makes good ground down the left and tiptoes along the byline. He flips infield for Gallagher, who like Haaland before him can only hack wide left. This surely won’t end 0-1.
51 min: City are getting frustrated, too. They break quickly, and Foden crosses from the right towards Haaland, free on the left-hand corner of the six-yard box. The ball’s not delivered at an ideal height, though, and he can only leap and sidefoot harmlessly wide left. Another big chance goes begging.
50 min: Walker drives into the Chelsea box from the right and steps across Sterling. He’s hit from behind. He goes over and wants a penalty. When he doesn’t get one, he’s beyond livid. VAR has a check but decides Walker went looking for it. City not happy.
49 min: Doku crosses from the left but can’t find Foden at the far stick. Goal kick. Chelsea, for the second time in a couple of minutes, take their sweet time over the restart, and a second-half pattern appears to have been set early doors.
48 min: De Bruyne flicks the free kick over the wall and inches over the bar. So nearly planted into the top-right corner. Petrovic was rooted to the spot. What an effort!
47 min: Caicedo, who is already fortunate not to have been sent off, first nearly scythes down an in-flight Doku – had the winger gone over, it’d have surely been a penalty – then clatters into Rodri. Next foul and he’s surely off. Anyway, it’s a free kick just to the left of the D.
46 min: City had 14 attempts to score during that first half. According to Sky, they only got two on target. Expect them to improve on that, surely.
City get the second half underway. No changes. “Oh I’m still here Scott, with tin hat on,” writes David Wall. “Even those (i.e. everyone) who disagree with the argument would have to concede that it’s at least a more principled basis for penalties than the Premier League’s ‘plucked from the air’ 10 points.”
Half-time essay, courtesy of David Wall. “Sean Dyche was on the radio last night and, seeing as this is the Investigation Derby, something they were talking about with him seems relevant to ask here.
“There seems to be an assumption pretty much everyone that Everton’s penalty was harsh and will be reduced on appeal. But when you think about it, isn’t it actually quite lenient? If you play an ineligible player in a one-off cup game you have to forfeit the game and kicked out of the cup. Everton were playing all of last season with a squad that they couldn’t afford under the regulations. You could argue that, on that basis, all of their players were ineligible in every game they played. Why shouldn’t they have to forfeit every game?
“If you understood it that way then, imposing it retrospectively, you’d penalise them the same number of points that they won last year. That’s a lot harsher than 10 points.
“People will say that’s ridiculous, but if you look at how they do things in Spain isn’t it effectively the same, except they do things proactively and preventatively. If you can’t afford your squad then you can’t start the season, effectively forfeiting every game. Of course no one does that but rather adjusts their squad so that it is affordable under the regulations. That’s what has caused Barcelona such problems the past few years.
“So there is international precedent for stricter penalties. Perhaps City and Chelsea should be concerned and Everton should think twice about appealing.”
(NARRATOR: Having lit the blue touchpaper, David wandered off.)
Half-time title-race catch-up. That’s not going to become a thing, is it. Still, here you go!
HALF TIME: Manchester City 0-1 Chelsea
Chelsea lead, and it’s a reward they deserve for their front-foot endeavour. City’s immediate response to falling behind suggests this story is far from over. These lads are serving up another highly entertaining game.
45 min +3: A cross swung into the Chelsea box from the left. Haaland wafts an uncharacteristically weak header wide right.
45 min +2: De Bruyne pulls the corner back for Foden, whose shot from distance is blocked. Disasi, a one-man resistance, clears again.
45 min +1: In the first of three added minutes, Alvarez takes a shot that’s deflected over the bar. Corner coming up from the right.
45 min: From the resulting corner, Jackson nearly flicks into his own net. Disasi is Chelsea’s hero again, heading clear off the line. Haaland tries to return it goalwards, but can only head out for a goal kick. City doing their best to bounce back strong.
44 min: Foden crosses from the right. Haaland prepares to head home from close range, only to be denied by the eyebrows of Disasi. What an intervention!
43 min: Chelsea deserve their goal. They’ve caused City plenty of problems in attack, and finally pieced it all together. On the touchline, Pep is fuming. His players will be getting the what-for at the break, you can be sure of that.
GOAL! Manchester City 0-1 Chelsea (Sterling 42)
Jackson exchanges passes with Palmer down the right and speeds off. He’s got Sterling free in the middle. He finds him with a low cross. Sterling takes a touch to his left then back inside, seeing off Walker, then curls a gentle shot over Ederson and into the right-hand side of the net! Great goal, albeit one Sterling celebrates with performative understatement.
41 min: Chilwell shanks a simple clearance miles into the air. Ake tries to take advantage by skittering down the left, only to be clattered by Palmer. The ball’s then worked to Alvarez, whose shot is blocked. Then Chelsea tear off on the counter, and …
39 min: The ball pings off the hapless referee, giving the frustrated City fans another excuse to vent. Their team were going nowhere at the time, to be fair to the ill-placed Andrew Madley.
38 min: The home fans make a bit of noise now, booing their disapproval as Walker sportingly knocks the ball out of play so Gallagher, down on his haunches, can get some treatment. Gallagher grimaces quite a bit, but gets back up and looks fine to continue for now.
37 min: Chelsea have done a good job of silencing the home fans. City not getting things their own way at all. Not yet. “Caicedo looks haunted by his transfer fee,” opines Sean Orlowicz. “Trying very hard to prove his worth but looks on the verge of breaking an opponents leg.”
35 min: Caicedo goes into the book now, though, for clanking through the back of De Bruyne. One way or another, he should be walking now. As it is, you’d imagine he’s just swanned into the last-chance saloon. Nothing comes of the resulting free kick, even though City load the box.
33 min: Fernandez scoops a delicious pass down the left channel to release Sterling on goal. With only Ederson to beat, Sterling takes a lame touch when he should be decisive, either shooting or rounding the keeper, and Ederson gratefully flops on the ball. Sterling smiles ruefully. Another huge Chelsea chance goes begging.
