How Man City Outsmarted Chelsea to Ignite an Open Title Race Following Arsenal's Slip-up

MANCHESTER CITY have Arsenal worried as they look over their shoulders in the title race.

The Gunners missed the chance to edge closer to the Premier League crown when they suffered a on Saturday.

Marc Guehi shone against ChelseaCredit: PA It was a frustrating weekend for Declan Rice and ArsenalCredit: Getty

And Man City made them pay by notching a convincing 24 hours later.

Nico O’Reilly, Marc Guehi and Jeremy Doku were on the scoresheet as Pep Guardiola’s side closed the gap to six points.

It has set this weekend’s showdown between the two sides at the Etihad Stadium up nicely.

And SunSport’s tactics guru Dean Scoggins has taken a look at how Man City bamboozled Chelsea in the latest episode of Tactics Exposed .

On your Marcs

Guehi was phenomenal at Stamford Bridge – and he created the extra man in attack.

Man City were braver and more intense in the second half. It came around Guehi.

Guehi doubled Manchester City’s advantageCredit: Getty

went forward as an attacking left centre-back and O’Reilly went even further forward.

In the second half, Man City completely swamped Chelsea. It was like playing with 12 men. It felt like they had an extra player on the field because of their shape.

Abdukodir Khusanov has been an unsung hero in the second half of the season. His improvement has been off the scale.

But not only that – Guardiola just trusts him. He went one-vs-one with .

It means that Matheus Nunes played to the right in the rest defence position so he was there if Chelsea went on the break.

But the key point is there were two men on . If Man City are one-vs-one everywhere else and Chelsea are putting two on their striker, they knew they had a spare man somewhere.

That spare man in this game was Guehi. He had 118 touches and he also stopped Estevao going the other way. At one stage, I wondered if Estevao was still on the field.

And he scored an absolutely fantastic goal, but I’ve got to highlight Malo Gusto – and he is going to be watching the video through his fingers when he sees it.

Malo Gusto made a huge error leaving GuehiCredit: SunSport

He went into a position where he was marking Guehi and then came along the edge of the box.

Gusto made the inexplicable decision to go towards Bernardo Silva because he thought the ball was going to be played out wide.

It was a brilliant pass from Cherki, but Gusto made an awful decision to leave Guehi.

He ended up five yards away from him and two seconds later, Guehi was putting the ball in the net. Gusto needs to hang his head in shame.

Guardiola’s Ray of light

Cherki is just a joy to watch. I think I would pay the entry fee just to watch him warm up.

He had an old-fashioned free role and was not just the No10, but he was attracted a bit too much to the left hand side in the first half.

Rayan Cherki is a joy to watchCredit: Getty

There was clearly a tweak at half-time because second half heat maps and touch maps show got close to Haaland and Cherki was more on the right hand side.

He drifted there and the cross for O’Reilly’s opener was phenomenal. I’m not sure many could do a cushioned, outside of the left foot pass with what seemed to be the wrong foot.

For Guehi’s goal, I’m not sure how Cherki got the ball through. It was a case of threading the eye of the needle.

He popped up all over the place because Chelsea didn’t want to go man for man.

Moi mayhem

Man City set a trap for . I noticed it in the first half and I knew they were going to get him.

They blocked the middle passing lane with Cherki and Haaland if Semenyo chased the ball.

If Chelsea went on the outside, O’Reilly was free to hit the press on the other side and Man City would have seven players against five to win the ball back.

Moises Caicedo was put under constant pressureCredit: SunSport Man City set a trapCredit: SunSport

That resulted in Chelsea going down the middle – and that’s where Man City set the trap.

When Robert Sanchez rolled the ball to Caicedo, Bernardo Silva went for him and was backed up by Doku and Cherki. That’s where the third goal came from.

I’m being hypercritical of Sanchez but if he ran to the edge of the box with the ball in his hand, he would then see Man City’s set up and probably give it to Pedro Neto instead of Caicedo.

Nic of time

grew up as a No10, so that’s why he ends up in positions further up the pitch.

Man City’s tactical set-up was built around his athleticism as much as anything.

Nico O’Reilly caused problems by breaking forward from left-backCredit: SunSport

He was in the centre forward position alongside Haaland two or three times in the first half.

And, for O’Reilly’s goal, Chelsea had two men on Haaland and they forgot about the football.

Andrey Santos was marking O’Reilly, but he isn’t as big and was outmuscled.

One of the centre-backs should have taken responsibility and attacked the ball. If O’Reilly is in the way, you splat him as well.

Haaland caused so much disruption and distraction in the penalty area that defenders were almost falling for it.