BPL day 2: Manchester City 3-0 Chelsea
Post game reactions:
Manchester City coach Manuel Pellegrini:
“It is very satisfying because it’s not easy to beat the champions. Chelsea are the best team – they won the title last season – and in the first 45 minutes, we really deserved at least three goals.
“We played very well without conceding chances for Chelsea to score and it was only a great performance from Asmir Begovic that meant we couldn’t score more goals.
“In the second half, we were restricted by the yellow cards we received so our intensity was not the same but even in our worst moment, Chelsea didn’t have chances and finally we scored the goals we deserved.
“Yes, the second half was more equal – Chelsea played better – but I only remember one chance which Joe [Hart] saved. We played better and 3-0 is the minimum we deserved. Aguero is in the best moment of his career. This season, he can be even better than before. He has matured and his work ethic is good. He is improving a lot of things.
“That’s why he started the game. In the pre-match press conference, I was asked whether he was 100% fit and you could see that. I don’t think he will suffer any injuries. Last season, he had no muscle injuries. He can be a top player for us this season.
“Three important saves denied him from scoring three or four goals today. In football, nothing is significant until the end. Chelsea were eight points in front of us last season and on New Year’s Day, we were on the same number of points. It is important not to drop points.
“We are trying to play the way we always do. I am proud to manage this team in the way we play. Last year, we made a lot of mistakes but we we the highest scoring team. We have scored three goals in each game this season”.
Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho:
‘In the first half the best team was winning, in the second the best team was Chelsea. We didn’t score and if the 1-0 result after the second half was an unfair result in my opinion, imagine 2-0 or 3-0. They were the best team in the first half, they controlled the game and created chances. We were comfortable on the ball but defensively we were quite fragile.
‘I’m the first one to be disappointed when all week you are speaking about movements, directions of the game, mechanisms, Aguero’s runs and positions, wingers coming from the outside to the inside, and then after 10 seconds he [Aguero] is in the face of Begovic. We were defensively poor in the first half.
‘In the second half everything changed. We brought our defensive line to the midfield line, we pressed them and had control of the game. We created chances and had space in midfield to play. They couldn’t cope with that. I’m nobody to analyse the opposing manager’s work but I don’t think anybody will misunderstand if I say we did very well.
‘They felt the result was in danger; their first change was a control change, Navas for Nasri, the second was defensive, Sterling for Demichelis. At that moment they wanted to keep the 1-0 and they were having trouble keeping it. We were punished by our mistakes for the second and third goals and we couldn’t capitalise on the good second half we had.’
