Jamie Redknapp has described Chelsea's performance at Manchester City today as a crime against football, with Antonio Conte's men putting in a meek display.
City won a rather dull contest 1-0 courtesy of a Bernardo Silva strike and, in truth, Chelsea didn't really create any serious chances of note, and seemed pretty happy to defend deep and limit their defeat to just one goal.
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For newly promoted Premier League sides a game plan like that might be acceptable, but for the reigning champions of England? Sky Sports pundit Redknapp was having none of it, and refused to hold back when summarising Chelsea's display after full-time.
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Speaking during Sky's live coverage the former Liverpool and Spurs midfielder said: "I looked at Chelsea today and that's a team that has nine Premier League title wins in the starting XI.
"Nine of them have won Premier League titles, Manchester City had two. You wouldn't have thought that would you watching it? They were completely outclassed.
"Last year we spoke so much about what Antonio Conte did for this league, the job he did and the way that he changed the system.
"But today that was such a hard watch, that was anti-football. That was a crime against football what they did today. I really felt that so strongly.
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"I was really looking forward to this game today. I understand 'okay we won't play with a striker, let's be difficult to beat' but you have to have some intent. They've got good players Chelsea, it was like they didn't want to go forward at all. That's not because Man City were that good, I just felt Chelsea today didn't really want to play.
"Before the game the manager set it out in their mind 'we're just going to sit back, we're not going to play'. They're better than that, they're much better than that.
"As much as Pep (Guardiola) would have celebrated that, he must have thought 'that was a waste of time'. Chelsea just gave them the three points before the game started."
Chelsea started the game without Alvaro Morata or Olivier Giroud up front and it took until the 78th minute until the Frenchman came on with the Spaniard arriving in the 90th minute.
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Fans seemed to agree with the former Spurs and Liverpool midfielder:
In fairness to Redknapp, it was a remarkably dull affair for a top-six clash and, for once, he probably isn't going over the top.
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What do you think of his comments, and how bad was Chelsea's performance?
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Topics:ย Manchester City, Football News, Chelsea, Premier League, Jamie Redknapp
