Chelsea’s performance against Manchester City on Sunday afternoon has been branded as a ‘crime against football’ by Sky Sports pundit Jamie Redknapp.
In a markedly different performance to those against Manchester United last week, the Blues had just 29% of the ball. They failed to get a single shot on target in the entire 90 minutes, and even started without a recognised striker, with Alvaro Morata and Olivier Giroud both starting on the bench.
Speaking after the game, former Liverpool and Tottenham midfielder Jamie Redknapp said:
“I looked at Chelsea’s team today, and that is a team with nine Premier League winners in the starting eleven.
“Nine of them have won the Premier League titles – Man City has two.
“You wouldn’t have thought that watching that performance, they were completely outclassed.
“Last year we spoke so much about what Antonio Conte did for this League, the job he did and the way he changed the system.
“But today that was such a hard watch. It was anti-football!
“That was a crime against football what they did today. I really feel that so strongly.
“I was really looking forward to this game today.
“I understand you think ‘Ok, I won’t play with a striker, let’s be difficult to beat’ – but you have to play with some intent.
“They have good players at Chelsea (but) it was like they didn’t want to go forward at all. Chelsea gave them three points before they started.”
The result not only leaves Chelsea five points adrift of fourth place Tottenham in the race for the Champions League, but also means that Man City now only require four more wins to confirm what we have known for a long time – that they will be the Champions.
