Pep Guardiola on Gabriel Jesus
Pep Guardiola talked about Gabriel Jesus after the Brazilian striker scored in Manchester City’s 1-0 win over Chelsea.
Gabriel Jesus fired an early Premier League warning shot as defending champions Manchester City toppled title rivals Chelsea 1-0 at Stamford Bridge. Brazil forward Jesus angled a deflected finish in the 53rd minute to help City leapfrog Chelsea in the table on goal difference, ending the Blues’ unbeaten league start. City offered far the greater enterprise, with Jesus’ winner helping Pep Guardiola avoid an unwanted first of losing to the same rival manager four matches in succession.
City’s ferocious press stifled Chelsea throughout, and the visitors to west London coped easily with the hosts’ formation tweak. Tuchel packed the midfield with all three of N’Golo Kante, Jorginho and Mateo Kovacic, but that 3-5-2 left Timo Werner and Romelu Lukaku too often too isolated up front. Chelsea could do little more than contain the visitors in a first half where the home players found possession greatly limited.
For once Tuchel resisted the temptation to make a half-time change, and no sooner had the second half started than the home boss would have wished he had twisted instead of stuck. Jack Grealish offered a warning shot by curling one wide, before Jesus finally broke the deadlock. Joao Cancelo’s low effort found its way to Jesus in the box, the Brazil forward spun in traffic and his low shot took a slight deflection en route to finding the Chelsea net.
City pressed on undeterred and Silva had to clear Jesus’ shot off the line after Grealish again left Azpilicueta for dead. Lukaku thought he had equalised for Chelsea from Havertz’s square pass, only for the Germany star to be rightly ruled offside in the build-up.
Chelsea continued to press but with no clear incision, despite greatly raising their tempo. But City could have wrapped up the win when Grealish ghosted through on goal, only for Mendy to stand him up and produce a fine save.
Jesus (53′)
