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Manchester City 0-0 Chelsea (4-3 on penalties): 5 Talking Points & Tactical Analysis | Carabao Cup Final 2018-19

Manchester City retained the Carabao Cup with a hard-fought victory over Chelsea
Manchester City retained the Carabao Cup with a hard-fought victory over Chelsea

Manchester City marched their way to the Carabao Cup trophy with an emphatic yet hard-fought victory over Chelsea in a tight fixture that went down to penalties.

They were made to hit a blank by the Blues, who built the strongest of fences in front of their goal to keep Pep Guardiola's side at bay for 120 minutes. Chelsea did have the better chances over the course of the game, while Manchester City threatened mainly through three attempts from Sergio Aguero.

Late drama unfolded at Wembley surrounding Chelsea keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga, but Manchester City found the back of the net on four of the five occasions in the shootout, and thus went on to lift the trophy.

It was probably the most well-contested affair with a lot of tactical approaches used by either boss. But in the end, it was all about holding the nerves.

On that note, let's take a look at the major talking points from Manchester City's win over Chelsea.


#5 Maurizio Sarri speaks out a different tactic with his line-up

Despite the splendid performance last time out, Hudson-Odoi had no space in Chelsea's starting XI
Despite the splendid performance last time out, Hudson-Odoi had no space in Chelsea's starting XI

Maurizio Sarri usually frustrates the Chelsea fans these days with his starting line-ups, as Jorginho, Marcos Alonso and Willian, who have largely been scrutinized, very often walk out of the tunnel before the first whistle.

Kepa Arrizabalaga was doubtful for the fixture owing to a hamstring injury, but he formed the last line of defence. The mainstays of the back line - David Luiz, Antonio Rudiger and Cesar Azpilicueta - started the penultimate fixture, while Emerson came in for under-fire Alonso, who was not even named on the bench.

Jorginho was recalled to the base of midfield, alongside him stood N'Golo Kante and Ross Barkley. In recent times, the latter has shown how good he can be in the final third, with his passes, link-up play and spectacular goals in the Europa League round-of-32, and hence, he was preferred over Mateo Kovacic.

But what raised a whole slew of eyebrows would have been the front three, that didn't comprise either Gonzalo Higuain or Olivier Giroud. Willian and Pedro operated the wings, and Chelsea's talisman - Eden Hazard - spearheaded the attack as a false nine.

That was certainly to contain City's attacking threat through Willian and Pedro, who cover out the middle third in order to avoid many passes into their centre-halves.

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