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Chelsea 1-0 Manchester City – FA Cup Player Ratings

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Wembley Stadium was the place where Chelsea played Manchester City in the FA Cup semifinal. We have today’s player ratings.

After Manchester City’s performance against Chelsea tonight, the quadruple dreams are no more for Pep Guardiola. The Catalan manager never likes this extra pressure his sides tend to get when they are having a nearly perfect season. This quadruple talk was happening in previous years and Pep hates it. Chelsea is currently the lead protagonist of the revival story in the whole year. After Frank Lampard was sacked, Thomas Tuchel came in to pick up the slack and delivered amazing results.

Roman Abramovich’s meritocracy policy keeps paying off, there’s no reason for him to change it. Today’s match was just as expected from both sides. City trying to control the ball and Chelsea parking the bus at the back while looking for an ideal chance to counter-attack. We got exactly what we expected and the main action came until after the second half started. Manchester City got really tired of trying to penetrate Tuchel’s defensive fortress.

Ziyech and Werner FTW! 

During the second half, we saw the only key moment Chelsea needed in order to get that goal. It came after a pass from the deep was taken by Timo Werner, who assisted Ziyech with a diagonal pass. The former Ajax star only had to push the ball in the back of the net. After this moment, it was all over for Manchester City. Throughout his entire professional career, Pep Guardiola has exhibited a major weakness that we can consider his kryptonite.

That is a well-organized squad that can defend well against his constant attacks. Mourinho was the first one who defeated his tactics but many have done it after that. We are not saying these tactics are not still effective. Only that some managers already know how predictable Guardiola can become. The Blues are installed in the FA Cup final and Pep has one less thing to worry about.

Player ratings 

Chelsea: Kepa (7), Chilwell (7), Silva (8), Rudiger (8), Azpilicueta (7), James (7), Jorginho (7), Kante (8), Ziyech (9), Mount (7), Werner (7). 

Bench: Pulisic (7), Emerson (7), Havertz (7), Zouma (5).

Manchester City: Steffen (5), Cancelo (6), Laporte (6), Dias (7), Mendy (7), Fernandinho (7), Rodri (6), De Bruyne (5), Sterling (6), Jesus (5), Torres (5). 

Bench: Foden (7), Gundogan (7). 

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