How Man City struggled to break down a stubborn Chelsea side

It is one of the oddities of football that sometimes you can become a victim of your own success. This was the case for Manchester City and Pep Guardiola as they faced Chelsea in the EFL Cup Final. A matter of weeks ago we saw City comfortably overcome their opponents in this match 6-0 when they met in the Premier League. This demolition saw the narrative in the lead up to this match firmly suggest that City would comfortably ease past Chelsea in order to claim the first piece of silverware this season.

What followed was a match full of incident and controversy, but not full of goals. The final was settled on a penalty shoot-out with England international Raheem Sterling scoring the winning goal.

While the histrionics surrounding the refusal of the Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga to accept being substituted and the subsequent behaviour of coach Maurizio Sarri on the sidelines were intriguing, they are not the base of this article. Instead, we will examine the tactical concepts within the match and look closely at the way Manchester City looked to break through the Chelsea block.

Lineups

When the team sheets were announced there was little in the way of initial controversy. You could argue that the decision by Chelsea and Sarri to include Pedro on the right of the attack and Eden Hazard as the central player, at the expense of Gonzalo Higuain, was a surprise.

Manchester City were aligned in their normal 4-3-3 structure with the Ukranian utility player Oleksandr Zinchenko at left-back.