Man City title celebrations on hold after losing to Chelsea
Chelsea’s Timo Werner, centre, and Chelsea’s Marcos Alonso, front, celebrate after winning the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester City and Chelsea at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, Saturday, May 8, 2021.(Laurence Griffiths/Pool via AP)
MANCHESTER, England (AP) - In a haze of blue smoke produced by fans, Manchester City team buses were sent to their stadium with the chant of "Champions".
They proved to be premature. There was still a game - closed to the crowd due to the epidemic - to be won.
And Chelsea won 2–1 on Saturday and prevented City from securing a third English title in four seasons and identifying Liverpool.
City time will surely come, with three games still in line in the Premier League. The ceremony may also come on Sunday if Manchester United lose 13 points to their neighbor, Aston Villa.
Losing for Chelsea has been angered by the quadrennial bid for City manager Pep Guardiola that ended after the FA Cup semi-final loss three weeks ago. Now it is only three weeks until they meet again on the biggest stage of club football - the Champions League final.
"We can learn from this & move forward," Guardiola said. "We have another three chances to be champions."
How different it could have been had Sergio Agero not had a "panenca" penalty slowly snatch from the center that Chelsea goalkeeper Eduard Mendy stopped in the first half after Gabel Jesus was brought under Billy Gilmour.
It was a chance to double the lead after the opener by Rahim Sterling in the 44th minute.
Andreas Christenson failed to get off a long ball and fell, and Gabriel Jesus failed to seize possession. The pass was crossed in the penalty area, that Aguero could not control to shoot before Sterling applied the finishing touch.
A mistake was then made by Rodry, playing as the only midfielder, to get the ball away around the half-line, which helped Chelsea equalize in the 63rd. Cesar Azpilicueta broke to the left before going to Hesim Ziach and hitting the ball to Christian Pulisic, who defended defender Nathan AK. Azpilicueta found out that he would have to hit less into the net to get to the Zeech before he could get the ball back.
Chelsea seemed to have given another penalty with two minutes left of regular time when Sterling appeared to be wrapped up with Kurt Zouma and got into a tangle. Despite protests and appeals from the referee that he himself was not present to witness the incident.
How expensive it proved to be for Citi. In stoppage time, Timo Werner cut the ball back for Marcos Alonso and sent it into the net and sealed the win that moved Chelsea to third.
Chelsea may have depended on a comeback next season after winning the Champions League. The team was five points out of fourth place when Thomas Tuchel retired in January.
TOTTENHAM setback
Tottenham faced another season out of the Champions League after losing to Leeds two days after reaching the final of Europe's elite competition.
After losing 3–1 to Leeds on Saturday, Tottenham trailed by five points from fourth place with three games to play, one more than Chelsea.
Tottenham canceled out Stuart Dallas' opening opener via Son Hyung-min, but Patrick Bamford & Rodrigo sealed the win. Leeds are unbeaten against the "Big 6" at home in their 1st season in the Premier League after 16 years, & sit in ninth place.
Castle safe
Crystal Palace will beat the already reclaimed Sheffield United 2–0 for the eighth successive season in the Premier League. Eberechi Eze set up Christian Benteke to score after 67 sec & netted himself in the 88th min.