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What Poch got right and wrong as Chelsea misses let Man City off in FA Cup semi-final
After a disappointing domestic campaign, the FA Cup represented Chelsea and Mauricio Pochettino's only hope of winning silverware this season
Bernado Silva's bundled finish was enough for Manchester City to overcome a wasteful Chelsea side and reach the FA Cup final.
Mauricio Pochettino watched his side deliver a performance that has perfectly encapsulated their season - lot's of intensity, plenty of promise, but next to no conviction. Nicolas Jackson was particularly guilty of missing chances as he should have had a hat-trick after 60 minutes.
However, the first chance of the game fell to City, as Kevin De Bruyne found Phil Foden with an eye through the needle pass, but the Englishman's heavy touch took him to the by-line instead of the goal.
Jackson's best chance of the opening 45 minutes was eerily similar. Enzo Fernandez played the 22-year-old clean through on goal, but instead of getting a shot away, he tried to dribble past Stefan Ortega - he did not even get a shot on goal. Things got worse for the Senegalese forward, as he missed two more gilt edged chances in the second-half, including a header which was straight at Ortega from five yards.
He was made to regret those misses, as City found the net with less than 15 minutes to play. De Bruyne slid down the right side of their backline and whipped a low cross to the back post, where Bernado Silva was there to strike an effort past the sprawling recovering defenders.
Conor Gallagher wing wizard?
What were your thoughts on the FA Cup semi-final between Chelsea and
With Palmer and Madueke striking up an impressive relationship, Gallagher has been shifted onto the left wing to accommodate the pair. Both players prefer to cut onto their left foot, so Gallagher's place on the left means Palmer can sit in the hole behind Jackson and Madueke can take his favourite position on the right.
While the attacking intentions are obvious, Gallagher's deployment on the flank also means he is there to help Marc Cucurella, who is widely known to be suspect when in one versus one situations. Unfortunately, it meant all of Chelsea's attacking threat came down the right-hand side.
Chelsea have forked out close to £200m in defenders since Tod Boehly took over, but it is the two freebies and longest serving players who look to be their most steady central-defensive pairing. Silva and Chalobah have been holding the backline together since Axel Disasi and Levi Colwill both got injured.
While they are not as mobile or front-footed, Chalobah and Silva look to be a lot more organised than their two injured counterparts. There seems to be less space in behind and they are not flying forwards as much as the latter.
To beat City, you need to be as close to perfect as possible, especially in the defensive phase. They were unfortunate to finish on the losing side.
There seems to be a new etiquette which suggests it is customary to deploy your second choice goalkeeper in the FA Cup - well, Pochettino was having none of it. While Guardiola deployed Ortega ahead of Ederson, the Argentine chose to stick with first-choice goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic.
It proved to be the perfect decision, as the Serbian was a titanic presence between the sticks. When De Bruyne put Foden through in goal, Petrovic stayed on his feet for as long as possible and forced the England international wide and away from the goal. His finest moment came in the second-half when he sprang across his goal-line to claw away a vicious, whipped shot to the bottom right corner.
A less sharp goalkeeper would have struggled to get down to an effort as low and hard as that. It goes to show deploying your No.1 goalkeeper will always be the most practical thing to do.
After watching his City players crash against Real Madrid's defensive wall over and over again, Guardiola may have been overjoyed when he saw the Blues press his players.
Pochettino has been accused of imposing a chaotic and unpredictable style which has often hurt his own players almost as much as the opposition. At Wembley, Pochettino embraced chaos by looking to attack City at speed in the transitional phases of the game.
Chelsea were constantly winning the ball back in the centre of the pitch, leaving Jackson with many free runs at goal. If his finishing was better, Chelsea could have wrapped the game up after an hour. Unfortunately, as is often the case with risky strategies, it proved to hurt the Blues in the very end, as they lost the ball in the attacking phase and left City with too many spaces to run into, in the build-up to their goal.
Daily Star Sunday
After a disappointing domestic campaign, the FA Cup represented Chelsea and Mauricio Pochettino's only hope of winning silverware this season
Bernado Silva's bundled finish was enough for Manchester City to overcome a wasteful Chelsea side and reach the FA Cup final.
Mauricio Pochettino watched his side deliver a performance that has perfectly encapsulated their season - lot's of intensity, plenty of promise, but next to no conviction. Nicolas Jackson was particularly guilty of missing chances as he should have had a hat-trick after 60 minutes.
However, the first chance of the game fell to City, as Kevin De Bruyne found Phil Foden with an eye through the needle pass, but the Englishman's heavy touch took him to the by-line instead of the goal.
Jackson's best chance of the opening 45 minutes was eerily similar. Enzo Fernandez played the 22-year-old clean through on goal, but instead of getting a shot away, he tried to dribble past Stefan Ortega - he did not even get a shot on goal. Things got worse for the Senegalese forward, as he missed two more gilt edged chances in the second-half, including a header which was straight at Ortega from five yards.
He was made to regret those misses, as City found the net with less than 15 minutes to play. De Bruyne slid down the right side of their backline and whipped a low cross to the back post, where Bernado Silva was there to strike an effort past the sprawling recovering defenders.
Conor Gallagher wing wizard?
What were your thoughts on the FA Cup semi-final between Chelsea and
With Palmer and Madueke striking up an impressive relationship, Gallagher has been shifted onto the left wing to accommodate the pair. Both players prefer to cut onto their left foot, so Gallagher's place on the left means Palmer can sit in the hole behind Jackson and Madueke can take his favourite position on the right.
While the attacking intentions are obvious, Gallagher's deployment on the flank also means he is there to help Marc Cucurella, who is widely known to be suspect when in one versus one situations. Unfortunately, it meant all of Chelsea's attacking threat came down the right-hand side.
Chelsea have forked out close to £200m in defenders since Tod Boehly took over, but it is the two freebies and longest serving players who look to be their most steady central-defensive pairing. Silva and Chalobah have been holding the backline together since Axel Disasi and Levi Colwill both got injured.
While they are not as mobile or front-footed, Chalobah and Silva look to be a lot more organised than their two injured counterparts. There seems to be less space in behind and they are not flying forwards as much as the latter.
To beat City, you need to be as close to perfect as possible, especially in the defensive phase. They were unfortunate to finish on the losing side.
There seems to be a new etiquette which suggests it is customary to deploy your second choice goalkeeper in the FA Cup - well, Pochettino was having none of it. While Guardiola deployed Ortega ahead of Ederson, the Argentine chose to stick with first-choice goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic.
It proved to be the perfect decision, as the Serbian was a titanic presence between the sticks. When De Bruyne put Foden through in goal, Petrovic stayed on his feet for as long as possible and forced the England international wide and away from the goal. His finest moment came in the second-half when he sprang across his goal-line to claw away a vicious, whipped shot to the bottom right corner.
A less sharp goalkeeper would have struggled to get down to an effort as low and hard as that. It goes to show deploying your No.1 goalkeeper will always be the most practical thing to do.
After watching his City players crash against Real Madrid's defensive wall over and over again, Guardiola may have been overjoyed when he saw the Blues press his players.
Pochettino has been accused of imposing a chaotic and unpredictable style which has often hurt his own players almost as much as the opposition. At Wembley, Pochettino embraced chaos by looking to attack City at speed in the transitional phases of the game.
Chelsea were constantly winning the ball back in the centre of the pitch, leaving Jackson with many free runs at goal. If his finishing was better, Chelsea could have wrapped the game up after an hour. Unfortunately, as is often the case with risky strategies, it proved to hurt the Blues in the very end, as they lost the ball in the attacking phase and left City with too many spaces to run into, in the build-up to their goal.
Daily Star Sunday