Analysis: Man City 1-1 Chelsea

Chelsea did not quite manage to hang on for the win against Manchester City but Blues boss Mauricio Pochettino felt their performance maintained their recent momentum ahead of next weekend’s Carabao Cup final.

Pochettino’s side are now unbeaten in three matches, and he was pleased with what he saw from them in defence and attack against the defending champions.

“I’m so pleased. I told the players I feel so proud,” Pochettino said. “In the last three games we’ve started to create a very good spirit. That’s the way we want to build our team. Today was a very good opportunity to show we’re going where we want.

“The first half was really, really good. We only conceded one chance – against a team like Manchester City who, for me, are the best team in the world.

“In the second half they force you to go deep, but we created chances to score the second goal and things could have been different. It’s important that the players realise that football is really competitive and to reach the level we want, we need to suffer.

“Now we have a very good game against Liverpool [in the Carabao Cup final]. The most important thing is to keep believing. Now we have to recover and prepare for the game as well as possible.”