Chelsea miss Mount as Guardiola wrestles control back from Tuchel | Jonathan Wilson

Starved of creativity, Chelsea were swarmed by Manchester City’s press as Pep Guardiola beat his German rival at the fourth attempt

It’s dangerous always to elevate players in absentia, to assume that if only they had been there they would have produced a flawless game and performed absolutely to their maximum, but perhaps the biggest lesson from the clash at Stamford Bridge on Saturday was just what a good player Mason Mount is.

Chelsea so far this season had been the most impressive of the title contenders because they had seemed to have such balance between attack and defence – a quality that has become increasingly rare as the financial imbalances of the modern game have led superclubs to focus on the sort of glamorous signings more useful for breaking down stubborn but lesser opponents than controlling big games. But the longer the game on Saturday went on, the more it became apparent that Chelsea were not holding Manchester City and waiting to spring out on the counter; they were simply penned in, unable to free themselves from the excellence of City’s press.