Goals: Manchester City—Aguero 31' - Kompany 79' - Fernadinho 85'
Recap: Ninety minutes of highly competitive football saw Manchester City defeat Chelsea 3-0 on Sunday.
A brilliant first half from Asmir Begovic kept the hosts from dominating the scoreline. His luck, however, would ran out in the 31st minute. A clinical finish from Sergio Aguero bested the Bosnian and Herzegovinian, allowing City to enter the break with a 1-0 lead. Chelsea's best chance to equalize came in the 70th minute, but Joe Hart was able to parry Eden Hazard's shot to safety. The match escaped the visitors from there.
Goals from Fernandinho and Vincent Kompany sealed the 3-0 victory.
Fernandinho gives Costa elbow to the head. Costa gets treatment, plots his demise & follows him toward tunnel at HT. pic.twitter.com/D22Q08IalR
— amadí tídíane thiam (@amadoit) August 16, 2015
Key Moment: Fernandinho was lucky to escape with just a yellow card in the first half. A lurking elbow during an aerial challenge connected with Diego Costa's head, forcing the striker to bleed profusely. The foul warranted a sending off and would've given Chelsea 45 minutes to find an equalizer with a man advantage. As if manager Jose Mourinho didn't have ammunition with the officials already.
World Class. #Aguero pic.twitter.com/t3obtXpwua
— Theo (@FourFourTheo) August 16, 2015
Man of the Match: Aguero was menacing on the afternoon. In addition to his goal, the 27-year-old completed five take-ons, more than any other City player.
Lesson Learned: Allow yourself to be distracted by Mourinho's talk of the officials or physios, but there's something to be said about Chelsea's poor start to the campaign. Admittedly, the defending Premier League champions are still quality by English standards, but rival teams have improved in the summer transfer window. Chelsea have largely stayed the same.
It's a dangerous game to assume success will carry from one year to the next, especially when the clubs beneath you have spent months preparing to supplant you.
Up Next: Both clubs return to league action on Aug. 23, with Manchester City battling Everton and Chelsea visiting West Bromwich Albion.
Note: Credit all statistics to officially licensed data from Opta Sports (via WhoScored).
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