Manchester City hosts Chelsea on Sunday in a game equally important for both teams. On one side, the Citizens are need points to keep up with Liverpool in the title race. On the other, Chelsea desperately need a top-four spot so they can reserve their place in European competition.
After a surprising defeat by Newcastle that almost ruined their plans, Pep Guardiolas side quickly got back on track with six points from their last two games. Chelseas performance has been more inconsistent lately with the team lacking a leading figure in every line on the pitch.
However, this game might be a bit different, thanks to Gonzalo Higuains arrival. Maurizio Sarri made sure to strengthen the teams strike force during the January transfer window. In came a pure striker that Chelseas squad needed given the departure of Alvaro Morata and Olivier Girouds loss of form.
This move boosted the Blues confidence. After a embarrassing 4-0 defeat by Bournemouth, they got back on track with a 5-0 win over Huddersfield in which the Argentinian scored twice. But will his arrival be enough for the team to get anything out of the City clash?
Higuains impact
“As you have seen in the last match, Eden passed the ball very often to Gonzalo, they speak the same language with the ball, and so I think that Gonzalo will be very important for us.”
Thats what Sarri said after the win last week. But let see how Chelseas game improved thanks to him. After sending 11 shots towards Bournemouths goal with seven of them being on target, the Blues doubled up that number against Huddersfield. The result was seven shots on target again, but their overall attempts were 21.
Another result of having someone highly positioned in the oppositions half is the increased numbers of offensive duels and corners. The team had 11 corners, their highest number in recent games.
The main difference in Chelseas style of play, though, is Hazards freedom. He is an amazing player on his own, but once he had Higuains support in the final third, he was able to do what he does best: pass, dribble and deliver. He dribbled successfully 14/15 times which in turn led to more offensive duels won (17/25). Five out of his six passes delivered to the final third were accurate. He also boasted 100% accuracy when it came to passes to the box (7/7).
With the ex-Juventus player operating more centrally, Hazard has more freedom to go back and pick up the ball, using his passing abilities. This would be extremely helpful in the build-up phase as this would create more space on the flanks for full-back Marcos Alonso to operate in.
In the picture above you can see Hazard picking up the ball and sending it to Higuain with a one-touch pass. The Argentinian immediately engages the central defenders whilst Hazard is on the left flank.
Then after dropping back with the ball, Higuain spread it out wide to Willian to escape the overloaded midfield area. Once Willian took control on the right Higuain started his movement back to the final third next to Hazard. In these situations, having Alonso further up the pitch gave the Belgian some freedom to cut inside and create goalscoring opportunities.
That is in Kyle Walkers area which was a great advantage for Chelsea. His average rat
