Chelsea hadn’t been three goals down at home at half time in three and half years leading to Sunday’s cracker against Manchester City, but Pep’s human-made sure to fix that with a ruthless display.
The visitors were without several first-team players following an outbreak of coronavirus at the club. Still, even that couldn’t stop them as they clinically put three goals past Lampard’s lackluster Chelsea in the first half of the game.
Ilkay Gundogan opened the scoring 18 minutes into play before Phil Foden doubled City’s lead three minutes later, following a well-read assist by Kevin de Bruyne.
In the 34th minute, De Bruyne deservedly got his name on the scoresheet with a close-range finish after Raheem Sterling’s strike rebounded off the woodwork.
City held on buy just at the nick of stoppage time, Callum Hudson-Odoi pulled one back for Chelsea, a mere consolation which, in all honesty, did nothing to alleviate the pain and pressure on Frank Lampard with some fans already calling for his sack.
The result lifted City to fifth in the table, four points off Liverpool and Manchester United with a game in hand on both, while Chelsea dropped to eight.
This is genuinely no way to start a new year, but this is football, and the season isn’t over yet, so Chelsea can still turn things around. I mean, if it’s happening for their London rivals, Arsenal, it can happen for them. Even the under fire Lampard thinks so too.
