Premier League champions Manchester City got back to winning ways by coming from behind to defeat in-form Chelsea in an entertaining match.
The visitors, who had won their previous seven away games, led when N’Golo Kante slipped the ball past Ederson from Mateo Kovacic’s aerial pass.
At that stage City were facing back-to-back Premier League defeats which would have left them 12 points behind leaders Liverpool and given them an uphill task to retain their title.
But the hosts rallied and evened the match when Kevin de Bruyne’s shot hit Kurt Zouma and wrongfooted goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga. Riyad Mahrez put the reigning champions – who move above Chelsea into third place – ahead with a fine finish after cutting in from the right wing.
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Both sides could have scored more in a chaotic first half, City going closest when Sergio Aguero hit the crossbar after a poor clearance by Kepa.
There were fewer incidents in the second half although Aguero hobbled off and had to be substituded by Gabriel Jesus, with Pep Guardiola worried it is a bad muscle injury.
Raheem Sterling thought he had scored a late third for City but it was ruled out by the video assistant referee in a very tight offside call.
City only had 46.74% of the ball, the lowest percentage by any Guardiola team in any of his 381 top-flight games in charge of Barcelona, Bayern Munich or City.
They sit nine points behind leaders Liverpool, who beat them 3-1 in the last game before the international break. “Chelsea are an incredible team,” Guardiola told BBC Sport after the match. “We knew it, but we beat them.
“It was a typical high-level game. Our back four played so good today. In the most difficult period of the game, we scored on the counter. “We created enough chances to score more goals.”
