Three key Manchester City players who under-performed against Chelsea

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Manchester City suffered their first home league defeat of the season to Chelsea on Monday evening, but who under-performed for Manuel Pellegrini’s side?

Jesus Navas

Navas lost possession more times against Chelsea than he has in any other league match this season.

The Spanish winger gave the ball away 28 times, four more than on his debut for the Blues when he was still finding his feet. And a closer look at the statistics suggests a worrying trend, with Navas guilty of losing the ball more in each of his last three league matches.

A dip in form or just a coincidence?

David Silva

On only 12 occasions all season has a mistake from a City player led to a shot on their goal. But against Chelsea, there were two mistakes in one game; one from Pablo Zabaleta and the other from David Silva.

That was the Spanish play-maker’s first such error of the season, and a look further down this article will show that Silva did not have the best of games…exactly when he was needed the most.

Silva can always be relied upon to create chances, but against Chelsea – when chances were going to be at a premium – his key-pass stats fell well short of his best performances of the season to date.

On four occasions, Silva has played six key passes, and on a further three occasions he has played four. But against Chelsea, that figure dropped to three.

Yaya Toure

Toure is not a player who is easily or regularly criticised, but against Jose Mourinho’s side he was short of his imposing best. His accurate passes fell well short of his season’s best against Norwich City. And while it can be reasonably argued that the opposition was considerably more challenging, the simple fact is the Ivorian did not dominate this match as he would have hoped.

image: © ins11thiago