MAN CITY 1, CHELSEA 0
Another match, another record for all-conquering Manchester City whose victory at home to Chelsea extended their Premier League title procession to an amazing 18 points clear of Liverpool and 19 ahead of Manchester United.
This time it was the highest number of passes since Opta began collating statistics in 2003/04 as they totalled an amazing 902.
City beat unambitious Chelsea, who parked the bus at the Etihad, thanks to a goal from Bernardo Silva 32 seconds into the second half.
It was as good as it got for City who had 71-per-cent of possession, but managed only three shots on target.
Out-of-form Chelsea lacked ambition as an anticipated 3-4-3 formation, turned out to be 5-4-1. And even when they fell behind they never changed to a more adventurous approach. They didn’t manage a goal attempt on target as they slipped to a fourth defeat in the last five games.
Guardiola saluted his side after another “top-top performance” but denied his side are looking for records when told they could finish with 105 points and become the first Premier League winners to amass 100 points.
City’s manager explained: “We want to play well and win, records are not the main thing. What matters is being champions, we have never spoken about records.
“We analyse what opponents do and then what we need to do to beat them.”
Guardiola would not be drawn on Chelsea’s defensive strategy, saying that was for Antonio Conte to comment on.
He said: “It was an amazing performance against Chelsea who are the champions. It was a top-top performance after the week we had, the final (Carabao Cup) and second game against Arsenal.
“We played with aggression, desire and commitment to win the game. We wanted to play with the ball.
“Chelsea are well organised and move the ball quickly so we did not need to have too many touches – just one or two – and control the counter attacks of Pedro and Willian, and we did it well.
“I thank the players and now we are three or four victories from being champions.
Conte praised City saying: “When you match quality and attitude, you become unstoppable.
“You have to use your head, and we didn’t want to concede space. If we had, we could have lost by three or four.
“I am not stupid to play open and lose 3-0. The pundits have to understand when you talk about tactics you have to have knowledge and not only speak in stupidity.”
City made two changes from the side that won at Arsenal in midweek as Oleksandr Zinchenko and Aymeric Laporte replaced Danilo and Vincent Kompany.
Chelsea recalled Cesc Fabregas for the unwell N’Golo Kante while Pedro was preferred to Alvaro Morata.
They also went with a mobile front three of Pedro, Eden Hazard and Willian as big men Morata and Olivier Giroud were on the bench.
It was a cagey start and it took City 20 minutes before they carved out their first clear-cut chance when Leroy Sane and Sergio Aguero combined to set up Bernardo Silva whose looping shot landed on the roof of the net.
City went close when Sane cut in from the left and his fierce shot beat keeper Thibaut Courtois, but Cesar Azpilicueta made a spectacular goalline clearance.
After a lukewarm opening half from City, they certainly were quick out of the blocks after the restart taking the lead after only after only 32 seconds.
A fine move involving Ilkay Gundogan and Aguero ended with David Silva crossing from the left for Bernardo Silva to score from six yards with a miss-hit shot that wrong-footed Courtois, his seventh of the season and third in the last five games.
They might have doubled their lead when David Silva drove into the box and forced a decent save from Courtois.
Chelsea, who failed to register a shot on target in 78 minutes, finally made a change as Giroud replaced Willian.
A second change quickly followed when Emerson Palmieri came on for Pedro.
City made their first change with five minutes left when Gabriel Jesus was given a brief runout as he replaced Aguero who had a rare barren day having scored 13 goals in his previous seven home games.
Danilo came on soon after for Zinchenko, City’s second substitution.
Chelsea’s last throw of the dice in the final minute saw Morata replace Hazard.
And City’s last change in the third of four added minutes saw Phil Foden get the briefest workout in place of David Silva.
Chelsea might have equalised in the third of four minutes of added time, but Marcos Alonso shot narrowly wide.