De Bruyne's return has been in excellent form for several games in a row.

On November 24, in the fourth round of the Champions League group, Manchester City played away against Borussia Mönchengladbach, substitute Kevin De Bruyne once again provided an assist to help the team beat the opponent 2-1.

Two days later, in the 13th round of the Premier League, Kevin De Bruyne started the game, and although he was substituted in less than 70 minutes of the second half, he still had an excellent performance during his time on the field.

He set up Sergio Aguero's trademark 45-degree diagonal cross in the first half, before De Bruyne himself scored a long-range shot from outside the box before being substituted in the second half.

And the statistics of one pass and one shot also made De Bruyne named the best player of the game after the game.

In the end, Manchester City beat Burnley 3-1 away to make it two league wins in a row.

It was also City's third win in all competitions since Kevin De Bruyne's return.

Although Manchester City won, their position in the table has not changed.

Chelsea beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 in the London derby, winning seven in a row while retaining their top spot in the league.

Due to Chelsea's poor record last season, they only have league and domestic cup competitions this season, and there are no European competitions to play in.

But it also saves Chelsea a lot of energy, saving them the hassle of running all over Europe, and allowing them to be in better shape to deal with their league rivals.

And the outside world has also changed their evaluation of Chelsea after Chelsea won seven in a row.

'Under Antonio Conte's leadership, this Chelsea team has found their style of play, the players are more united than ever, there are no more panic problems in the previous two seasons, and they are gradually regaining the style of the Blues who looked down on the Premier League!

"Although Manchester City is chasing after Chelsea, but Manchester City has to fight on two or even three lines, and after the start of the Club World Cup, they will have to fight on four lines, such a dense schedule, frequent games, Manchester City players are a huge test of physical fitness and bench depth, if they have the main injury in the team, I am afraid it will be really difficult to catch up with Chelsea."

'Considering there are only a few games left before the halfway point, if Chelsea can win the halfway game, then they might really be able to snatch the Premier League title from Manchester City!'

Although not many people think that this Chelsea team is really stronger than Manchester City, but weak strength does not mean that it cannot win the title.

Manchester City are strong, but they are distracted from other competitions and cannot devote all their energy to the league.

It may be better to say now that after the beginning of next spring, as the Champions League knockout rounds are at their most intense, Manchester City will inevitably face far stronger opponents than they are now, and Manchester City will suffer a huge attrition in the Champions League at that time.

And Manchester City, which has suffered such a huge attrition, can still call for wind and rain in the league?

It's hard, I'm afraid, especially with so many competitors.

And with the resurgence and rise of Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea, even the league is much harder to play than in previous years.

In this round of the league, in addition to Manchester City and Chelsea to win, Liverpool, Arsenal and other teams at the top of the standings have defeated their respective opponents.

The current pattern in the table remains unchanged, with Chelsea at the top of the table with a one-point advantage, followed by Manchester City, Liverpool behind Manchester City on two goal difference and third, and Arsenal two points behind Manchester City and Liverpool in fourth.

The point difference between these four teams is only 3 points at most, and it can even be said that this is the most competitive competition in the Premier League championship group in the past decade.

However, whether Chelsea can win the title depends on whether they can take advantage of the strong dialogue with Manchester City.

And the next round, which happens to be a direct conversation between the two teams, is a game worth six points.

Whoever wins will be at the top of the leaderboard, and whoever loses may be kicked out of the winning group!

Given the importance of the game, the Fleet Street media had already begun to heat up for the game before it even started.

Can a resurgence in form stop Chelsea, who have won seven in a row? 》

Can Chelsea break the spell of winless at the Etihad Stadium against the devil's home again? 》

"Lin Quan VS Hazard, who is the strongest breakthrough player in the Premier League? 》

……

It's not just the major media that pays attention to these questions, but fans also care about the answers to these questions.

Chelsea, who have won seven in a row, look morale-boosting and unstoppable.

Although Manchester City has fallen into a trough for a while, the prestige they have built up in the past three years is still not to be underestimated.

In such an important match that is likely to decide the title of the season, who will have the last laugh?

The head coaches of both teams attached great importance to this game, and coincidentally chose to train behind closed doors, not wanting the outside world to know about their training, and it seemed that they were holding back their tactics for this game.

On December 3, dark clouds were over the Etihad Stadium.

At the start of the game, the temperature in Manchester dropped to 2-3 degrees, and if it rained again at this time, it would be a huge test for both players.

And rain is a normal thing in Manchester.

But even if the clouds are thick, it still can't stop the enthusiasm of the fans.

The Etihad Stadium, which is not huge, was normally packed, with a large number of local fans and many foreign fans from all over the world.

To be able to see a pinnacle duel like Manchester City and Chelsea up close is definitely a very lucky thing for these fans who have come from afar.

The managers of both teams clearly had a big move, and the fans were shocked when they saw the positions of the players on both sides on the field.

Manchester City and Chelsea have chosen to play with a back three!

The difference is that Manchester City's formation is 3421, while Chelsea's formation is 343.

After the opening, both teams were relatively stable and did not attack rashly.

Chelsea's formation was originally more attack-oriented.

However, after City's players tested their defence, it soon became clear that Chelsea's focus was on defence.

This is not surprising given that it has been several years since Chelsea had beaten Manchester City at the Etihad.

The team is still a little psychological, plus Manchester City's offensive ability is known to the world, and when facing them, pay attention to defensive work, which is the basic skill of each team.

In the whole football world, there are almost few teams that dare to open up against Manchester City.

Chelsea have a points lead and a draw is acceptable to them as long as they don't lose this game.

And once they lose to what is arguably their biggest threat on the way to the title, Chelsea cannot afford to lose.

Seeing Chelsea playing so conservatively, Guardiola waved his hand and signaled the team to press hard and start attacking.

In this game, Guardiola's selection of three defenders was actually very particular, he abandoned Zabaleta and Kompany, and chose Van Dijk in the middle, Kolarov on the left and Stones on the right.

Both men are strong attacking players, and it is clear that when he chose these players to start, Guardiola thought about breaking down Chelsea with his attack.

Chelsea used to have the strongest defensive ability in the Premier League under Jose Mourinho's tutelage.

Although Mourinho is gone, many of those players have left.

But the genes of iron-blooded defense seem to be engraved in the bones of Chelsea people.

In the face of City's onslaught on the attack, the Chelsea men took advantage of the situation and played a counter-attack, and they did a very good job.

Conte has done a pretty good job of transforming Chelsea in the past six months.

Under his tutelage, the Blues' defence has a hint of a Serie A team, the overall defensive quality is not to mention, and the play is very organised, the players are also very good at working together, and there are almost no mistakes when it comes to rotation and fill-in.

After 45 minutes of the first half, Chelsea did not receive a single yellow card as the defensive side.

From this you can see that the Chelsea defenders have been very successful defensively and very clean.

But even that couldn't stop the City man from putting the ball in Chelsea's doors.

In first-half stoppage time, Chelsea's centre-back Gary Cahill gave City a big gift with an own goal.

This goal is actually very demoralizing, the first half of the game is about to end, but in the last few seconds you have an own goal, so that everyone's efforts in the first half are in vain, it really makes people want to cry without tears.

However, when Conte was in the dressing room, he did not blame the players, and even comforted Cahill, who played his own goal.

"You guys played great, I'm so proud of you!"

"But you can do better!"

Conte's first words caught the attention of the players, and everyone looked up at him curiously.

Conte didn't say this to comfort the players, he was really proud of them.

After all, apart from Cahill's own goal, Chelsea didn't give City any chance for the full 45 minutes of the first half.

In the whole of football, I am afraid that there are not many teams that have the ability to do this.

But the team is behind now, so the way we play in the second half has to change.

……

After the start of the second half, Antonio Conte replaced Pedro for Willian.

Willian's arrival has greatly enhanced Chelsea's attacking power.

City's wide defenders have struggled to keep up with Willian's pace, and not only does this guy have speed, but his movement and his passing continue to pose a threat to City's wide flanks.

But even so, Manchester City still played very calmly, in the 58th minute of the second half, even played a series of wonderful combinations in the front, and finally Lin Quan sent a straight plug in the penalty area, Aguero rushed to the ball and swept the ball towards the goal.

The Chelsea goalkeeper had surrendered and the ball had rolled to the edge of the line, but just then, Chelsea's no.15 arrived and smashed the ball in a thrilling way on the goal line.

Aguero saw that the ball didn't go in, hugged his head in frustration, and fell to his knees, regretting why he didn't push harder just now.

If this goal can be scored, then the suspense of this game is basically gone.

There was a penalty for wasting a chance, and just two minutes later, Chelsea's side returned the favor.

Cesc Fabregas's long ball found Diego Costa, who carried Kolarov on his hand and fired a low shot past Keylor Navas to level the scores.

The goal ignited the enthusiasm of the Blues fans in the stands and within two minutes, the Chelsea fans experienced what it was like to go from hell to heaven.

Two minutes ago, when they saw the team being pressed to the ground by Manchester City and almost conceding another goal, countless Blues fans were terrified to the extreme, fearing that the team would be knocked down by Manchester City's hegemon.

And after only 2 minutes, they lost all the fear in their hearts, and some were just joy and full of ambition.

If you continue to play like this, it may not be impossible to win away from Manchester City!

After Chelsea's equaliser, there was a bit of annoyance on City's side, and the players were even more aggressive in attack.

In the 65th minute, Manchester City's attack hit the Chelsea penalty area again, Lin Quan dribbled into the penalty area, and was about to shoot with his feet when he was tripped by the opposing defender David Luiz.

It was supposed to be an undisputed penalty, but the referee didn't seem to see it, and instead gave Lin Quan a yellow card, thinking that he had faked a fall.

There was an uproar at the scene, and the Manchester City fans in the stands, including the players on the field, were stunned one by one.

Doesn't this guy know that Lin never fakes falls?

showed a yellow card to such a player and sentenced him to fake a fall, this guy was paid by the other party to blow the black whistle, right?

Sergio Aguero was already dissatisfied with the referee, and in the 24th minute of the first half, he was also tripped by an opponent in the penalty area, and the referee did not say anything at that time, this time it was a blatant false whistle.

Aguero was angry and came up to reason with the referee, but the referee did not want to pay attention to him and instead signaled for the game to continue.

The Chelsea players saw that the attention of Manchester City's side was on the referee, and they were decisive and quick to catch Manchester City off guard.

Willian, who came on as a substitute, received a pass from his team-mate, and galloped into the Manchester City penalty area, beating the goalkeeper in a one-on-one heads-up to score the ball again.

The score was 2-1 and Chelsea turned the game around.

Seeing that the referee ignored his protests and still thought the goal was valid, Aguero and the other Manchester City players were not happy.

They came up to besiege the referee, with Sergio Aguero and Fernandinho even pushing the referee.

Without saying anything, the referee immediately took out two red cards and sent off Aguero and Fernandinho respectively.

The Manchester City players on the pitch and the Manchester City fans in the stands were all enraged, and many of the emotional fans near the stadium began to try to climb over the fence and rush into the stadium to teach the black-whistle referee a lesson.

Many fans began to throw miscellaneous items such as coins, mineral water bottles and even mobile phones onto the stadium.

The referee was far away, but he was not hit much, but the assistant referee and the fourth official close to the stadium were unlucky, and even the Chelsea coach's bench was hit by coins and mineral water bottles.

Seeing that the scene was about to get out of control, the game had to be interrupted, and the referee was also escorted by the security personnel, and hurriedly left the stadium with the 'coin rain' overhead.

Keeping the perpetrator on the pitch will happen if they don't have it, and if the Manchester City fans lose their minds and rush up and beat him to death, it will be serious.

(End of chapter)