How Guardiola got better of Maresca with surprise wing ploy

Alex Keble analyses how Pep Guardiola got the better of Enzo Maresca as Manchester City started their Premier League title defence with a win at Chelsea.

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It wasn’t quite the free-flowing football of Man City's nine-match winning run to end last season, but the reigning champions did more than enough to ease beyond a Chelsea side lacking a spark.

It will take time for Chelsea’s latest rebrand to get going. They can be forgiven, then, for their part in a slightly disjointed game at Stamford Bridge, and indeed in the context of a major tactical overhaul their first game under Maresca wasn’t too disheartening.

Guardiola will be satisfied with a performance defined by an intelligent tactical move in the first half and then a slow suffocation in the second, as detailed below.

Guardiola targets wings with surprise De Bruyne position

The most important moment of the game, Erling Haaland’s first-half opener, was the result of a specific instruction given to Kevin De Bruyne that had already defined the opening of the match.

Unusually, De Bruyne was positioned very wide on the left, which was the first of several signs that Guardiola had expected Maresca to leave Chelsea light on the wings. Starting two direct wingers, and putting the left-footed Savinho on the left and right-footed Jeremy Doku on the right, to get them round the outside, was another. 

Only Newcastle United, with 85 per cent, attacked down the wings more than Man City's 81 per cent this weekend.

That is very unlike Guardiola’s team, but it made sense up against a Chelsea side with Cole Palmer and Christopher Nkunku out wide.

Neither player was particularly effective at tracking back, often leaving Malo Gusto or Marc Cucurella exposed.

It happened several times prior to the Man City opener, when space emerged centrally because Chelsea were dragged to one side by De Bruyne (circled) and because Palmer (out of shot below) and Nkunku failed to get back.

Chelsea’s 4-4-2 is too disconnected in key moments

Palmer and Nkunku struggling to get back was by no means the only problem with Chelsea’s off-the-ball 4-4-2 shape.

Maresca’s football was never going to click right away, not only because many senior Chelsea players have only just returned to training but because, after some sloppy mistakes in a pre-season friendly against Man City, Maresca decided to temper some of his tactical principles today.

Unfortunately, it left Chelsea caught between a rock and a hard place, especially in the first half.

They were not pressing high, but nor were they dropping deep, creating decompressed lines that allowed Man City to carry the ball easily through the thirds.

In a typical example here, note how stretched Chelsea had become.

For long periods of the second half Chelsea were much better, thanks predominantly to Man City’s decision to slow the game right down with some low-tempo possession; they held 57 per cent in the second half, and only 46 per cent in the first.

This meant Chelsea, forced back, naturally closed the gaps between the lines. However, the problem re-emerged dramatically for Man City’s second, when Mateo Kovacic strode through the middle far too easily.

Fernandez and Palmer struggle as Kovacic and Lewis shine

Chelsea showed glimpses of quality, especially on the ball, even in the slightly stripped-back version of Maresca’s possession football.

Romeo Lavia in particular stood out, making the joint-most combined tackles and interceptions, with six, of any player on the pitch and confidently wriggling out of trouble when pressed by the City players.

He led the new possession-centric Chelsea style, in which slow movement of the ball will become a key feature.

But there were lots of negatives, and chief among them was that 4-4-2 shape.

Fernandez looked lost as a No 10, rarely showing for the ball when Chelsea’s defenders were in possession and regularly pressing in the wrong moments, which in turn allowed City to break through and gain control.

Worse still, Palmer was ineffective shunted wide out to the right and perhaps would have been better central, while Nkunku struggled up against the brilliant Rico Lewis.

Lewis, underlapping from the right superbly, was one of Man City’s best players, although the goalscorer Kovacic just edged it.

Kovacic completed the most tackles, with six, and had the most touches of the ball, 64, intelligently breaking up play and recycling possession in a convincing impression of the injured Rodri.

Then again, an awkward-looking Fernandez chasing him down, coupled with Chelsea’s decompressed 4-4-2 that left all those spaces in midfield, certainly made it easier for Kovacic to shine.

That was certainly true for Kovacic’s goal, a moment that summed up the game: Chelsea misplaced a pass straight to him, then lacked the aggression and desire needed to close him down.

Clearly, Chelsea and Maresca have plenty of work to do.