Runaway Premier League leaders Manchester City took another major step towards bagging the league title by defeating champions Chelsea 1-0 at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
Pep Guardiola’s men extended their lead to 18 points with the victory and left the London side further adrift from the Champions League qualification spots.
City, who have now won 14 straight home games, need just four wins from their remaining nine matches to be crowned champions, says a Reuters report.
“It was so important, a win today is another step closer,” Guardiola said.
“We need four victories to be champions, it is in our hands and if our behaviour is like today we will be champions”.
After Chelsea’s defensive approach resulted in a first-half stalemate, City went ahead 33 seconds into the second period when Bernardo Silva turned in a low cross from David Silva.
The Blues have now lost four of their last five Premier League games and are in fifth place, five points behind Tottenham Hotspur who occupy the fourth Champions League spot.
It was far from a classic game with Chelsea showing little ambition and City happy to play within themselves for large stretches, but that was perhaps a consequence of a title race that has effectively been over for months.
Still Chelsea hardly approached the game like a team who needed points to get back in contention to qualify for Europe’s elite competition.
Antonio Conte left both Chelsea’s recognised strikers – Alvaro Morata and Olivier Giroud - on the bench and opted to play winger Eden Hazard as a lone striker.
Conte defended his approach, saying he was concerned about the risk of a heavy defeat.
“When you play against a team that has shown to be stronger than you - because 25 points is a big difference - you have to think with your brain and not your head because otherwise you finish with a bad loss and that’s not good for the players,” he said.