Man City player ratings gallery - One player scores 8/10 as five get 7/10 in 1-0 win vs Chelsea

Julian Alvarez’s goal proved to be the different between the sides on the afternoon Manchester City were crowned as Premier League champions again.

A heavily rotated Manchester City beat Chelsea 1-0 on Sunday as they were crowned Premier League champions for a third consecutive year.

There was a really end-of-season feeling to the game at the Etihad, which was preceded by the champions being given a guard of honour by the opposition as they entered the pitch. Julian Alvarez grabbed the only goal of the game, in which neither side impressed or over-exerted themselves.

City started brightly with Sergio Gomez and Phil Foden smashing shots wide after Chelsea cleared from respective corners. But it only took until the 12th minute for the hosts to find the opener via Alvarez. The Argentine was fed the ball just inside the Chelsea box from Cole Palmer, and after taking a touch, City’s no.19 fired past Kepa Arrizabalaga.

City’s remained on top and Chelsea were forced to scramble inside their own box to block shots from Foden and Riyad Mahrez, while Trevoh Chalobah cleared Palmer’s shot off the line after 24 minutes. Soon after, Foden nearly lofted the ball over Arrizabalaga’s head, with Chelsea affording the hosts’ too much time and space.

Frank Lampard’s men should, however, have take the lead when Raheem Sterling raced through on goal and it took a fantastic reaction save from the feet of Stefan Ortega to deny the ex-City man, before Conor Gallegher hit the post with a header from a Lewis Hall cross.

After the break, Ortega twice kept out strikes from Lewis Hall and a tame Sterling effort, while in the 58th minute, Kalvin Phillips nearly grabbed his first goal for City when his header struck the inside of the post but couldn’t quite sneak over the line.

City then had two goals ruled out, the first by Mahrez after Alvarez gave away a foul in the build-up, and then the two interchanged roles as Mahrez’s handball saw Alvarez’s first-time finish disallowed.

Erling Haaland came on in the latter stages and within a minute dragged a shot wide, with Julian Alvarez then testing Arrizabalaga with a powerful strike. In injury-time, Foden cleared at the back post to prevent Cesar Azpilicueta from scoring, while Chalobah headed over from a corner.

Here’s how we rated the City players…

Related topics: