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Manchester City worsen Graham Potter's prospects with a resounding 4-0 beating of Chelsea to advance to the next round of the FA Cup
Graham Potter’s mood could not be any worse after Manchester City compounded the Chelsea boss’ woes by dumping them out of the FA Cup in spectacular fashion.
Already agitated by his last press conference, Potter and his Blues had something to prove going into the cup tie against Manchester City. Still, they came out much worse than they went in and suffered for 90 minutes against a far superior Manchester City side.
Manchester City, fielding a largely second-string team, were able to rest Ederson, John Stones, Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan, and Erling Haaland while giving much-needed game time to players like Cole Palmer, Sergi Gomes, and Julian Alvarez.
Chelsea also rested some first-team players, but while City could rely on a four-goal World Cup-winning striker and the captain of the Algerian national team to replace some of their first-teamers, Chelsea had to rely on academy players like Bashir Humphreys to fill in for the rested players.
First Half
The gulf in class in the first half was glaring for all to see in the first half including Chelsea’s duo of new recruits Benoît Badiashile and David Datro Fofana who watched on from the bench while definitely contemplating if they had made the right choice by coming to Stamford bridge.
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Manchester City opened the scoring thanks to a brilliant freekick from Algerian winger Mahrez, and just six minutes later, Chelsea conceded a penalty after a calamitous handball by Kai Havertz in the penalty area.
World Cup winner Julian Alvarez stepped up and cooly slotted past Kepa Arizzabalaga in goal to make it 2-0 to Pep Guardiola’s men and from that point on, it was obvious that there would be no way back for Chelsea.
Phil Foden added another goal following a brilliant cut-back from Kyle Walker in the 38th minute to make it 3-0 for Manchester City going into the break.
The first half ended with Manchester City dominating 61% of the ball and allowing Chelsea only 39%.
Second Half
The second half took on a more even tone, although Manchester City already knew that the job was done and only had to avoid a catastrophic collapse for the second 45 minutes.
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They managed to do this, limiting Chelsea to only one shot on target, while getting a goal at the other end to cement their lead.
Mahrez completed the Manchester City rout with a second-half penalty to make it 4-0 and ensure that any ideas about a comeback were quickly discarded.
Chelsea’s only positive from the game is that the club’s fans got a glimpse of one of their latest signings, Datro Fofana who came on as a half-time sub for Mateo Kovacic.
Manchester City will now progress to the fourth round of the FA Cup where they will face either Oxford or Arsenal.
Chelsea on the other hand must lick the wounds of an early FA Cup exit to add to their 10th position in the league that only mounts more pressure on the club's manager Graham Potter
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