Man City Beat Chelsea to Close in on Arsenal

Manchester City closed the gap on Premier League leaders Arsenal to five points with a 1-0 victory over injury-ravaged Chelsea at Stamford Bridge Thursday night.

The reigning champions struggled in the first half before two of manager Pep Guardiola’s substitutes combined to break the deadlock after 63 minutes, Riyad Mahrez turning in Jack Grealish’s low cross at the far post.

Chelsea enjoyed the better of the first half despite adding both former City forward Raheem Sterling and Christian Pulisic to a lengthening injury list, substitute Carney Chukwuemeka hitting the post from the edge of the area.

Graham Potter will justifiably point to Chelsea’s ill-luck with absentees but the bottom line is this defeat leaves them in the unaccustomed position of 10th, 10 points off the Champions League places.

City, meanwhile, will be happy to get three points despite being nowhere near their best and on a rare night when scoring machine Erling Haaland failed to hit the target.