Premier League: Chelsea Hold Man. City To Draw In Sensational Eight-Goal Thriller

Chelsea fought through a tough eight-goal thriller at Stanford Bridge to force Manchester City to 4-4 draw with Cole Palmer's injury time penalty deciding the fate of the game. 

City quickly moved ahead as Marc Cucurella dropped Erling Haaland in a challenge for an aerial ball, and the Norwegian striker converted the spot kick for the opening goal.

Chelsea responded to level up as Thiago Silva latched onto an aerial ball arriving into City's crowded six-yard box and got a flick header to the ball to beat Ederson to the goal for thr equalizer. 

It turned unpleasant for City later on as Silva picked out Reece James to slide a cross through City's crowded box and Raheem Sterling was just waiting, and tapped home the ball from close range. Chelsea went ahead. 

City waded back up to level the scores with Chelsea on the brink of halftime as Bernando Silva's cross picked up Manuel Akanji for a glance header beat Robert Samchez to the top corner of the goal. 

Minutes into the second half, Julian Alvares' cross found Erling for a tap in from close range as City regained the lead before Chelsea once again equalized as Nicolas Jackson finished off Conor Gallagher's rebound shot. 

City once again regained the lead as Thiago silva deflected in Rodrigo's shot, and Chelsea followed once again to leveled the scores fromCole Palmer's penalty, following Ruben Dias foul on Armando Broja in the box. 

Having to draw game robbed City of the maximum points needed to go three points clear of trailing rivals, Liverpool and Arsenal (27pts). City remained the table leaders by just a point clear. 

Quick Overview

Sensational and highly animated game through and through with no sides ready to take a bow as they quickly responded to goals that saw four coming in very quickly in both halves. Erling forced a brilliant save from Sanchez but as Chelsea kept exhibiting a bit of rustiness at the front over their lead City dragged the game back to level from Akanji's header on halftime break. 

Jeremy Doku did a great job for City on the left side, putting James and Cole Palmer to work as he repeatedly burrow through into the box. Phil Foden kept the pressure at the front of Chelsea's box taking the pressure off Erling to allow him find pace to attack. 

Sterling really fired up up Chelsea en route the game and another was Nicolas Jackson scored the third goal and should have got more if he was enable to connect the chances he had. Meanwhile, City really capitalised on Cucurella to get through which Spaniard later brush up on after Foden exploited his wing to connect Alvares in the build up to the visitors retaking the lead sooner after the halftime break. 

Mauricio Pocchetino's adjustment to replace Enzo Fernandes with Mykhailo Mudryk quickly paid off. The Ukriannian player facilitated the build up to the equalizer. Hence, they were able to hold off their hard-fighting opponents.

The striking difference between the two teams is the preparedness to maximum their efforts on the offensive. For City, it was the drive to make most of their efforts in front of the goal, and in the end, that did worked out for both sides.