It`s the morning after the night before and like many others I`m still perplexed about what I saw yesterday, at the Etihad Stadium.
I can`t recall a Chelsea side taking to the field of play with such a negative mind-set and looking beaten before the kick-off.
The Sky Sports pundits were, in my opinion, right in lambasting Antonio Conte for his tactics.
After all, we weren`t some lower half of the table side hoping to grab a point, we were the defending Champions of England, a title we won so gloriously last season.
Following the, how you might say, unfortunate display, Antonio Conte spoke to the media and had this to say, in his defence,
‘I think in this moment you have to accept every critic, but I am not so stupid to play against Manchester City open and to lose 3-0 or 4-0.
‘If I remember well, a few days ago, Arsenal played twice against them and then you criticise a lot Wenger because they concede three goals in only 30 minutes.
‘I think that the pundit has to use the head to understand when you speak about tactics because I think that you must have knowledge to speak about tactics and not only to speak in a stupid way.’
Which leads me on to two questions you may wish to ponder:
1 – Would you have rather seen Chelsea go for broke against Manchester City and come away losing 4-2?
And
2 – Would the reaction to yesterday have been far different if, in those dying seconds, Marcos Alonso had drilled that chance he had into the bottom corner of the net instead of just wide?
It`s a funny old game football isn`t it!
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