Rodri dramatically rescued a point with a late leveller for Manchester City to deny Chelsea victory and maintain his side’s long unbeaten home record.
City still lost ground in the title race after seeing Liverpool and Arsenal both post emphatic wins earlier on Saturday, but this has to go down as a point gained given how close they came to defeat.
Raheem Sterling had given Chelsea the lead just before half-time, finishing off a brilliant counter-attack by meeting Nicolas Jackson’s cross, cutting inside Kyle Walker and curling his shot home.
The visitors looked threatening on the break all game, with Jackson earlier spurning an even better chance from Malo Gusto’s cross when a heavy touch allowed Ederson to smother his shot, and City’s keeper also denied Sterling a second from point-blank range.
City were racking up the chances too, but seemed unable to take any of them, or even seriously test Chelsea goalkeeper Dorde Petrovic despite piling on the pressure in the second half.
Erling Haaland was the main culprit, with his worst miss coming when he somehow headed wide from a delicious Kevin de Bruyne cross.
The defending champions were facing their first home league defeat since November 2022, until Rodri struck with seven minutes to go.
After Walker’s shot was deflected into his path on the edge of the box, Rodri fired in a ferocious first-time strike that was going in anyway but took a touch off Chelsea substitute Trevoh Chalobah on its way into the net.
The draw sees City drop to third in the table, four points behind leaders Liverpool but with a game in hand – they can close the gap, and leapfrog second-placed Arsenal, if they beat Brentford here on Tuesday.
Chelsea, who were minutes away from a third successive away win, stay 10th, but head to Wembley for next weekend’s Carabao Cup final on the back of one of their best displays of an erratic campaign.
More follows.
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Manchester City
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Squad number20Player nameBernardo Silva
Chelsea
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Squad number14Player nameChalobah -
Squad number18Player nameNkunku -
Squad number31Player nameCasadei
Line-ups
Man City
Formation 4-1-4-1
- 31Ederson
- 2Walker
- 25Akanji
- 3Rúben Dias
- 6Aké
- 16Rodri
- 47Foden
- 17De Bruyne
- 19ÃlvarezSubstituted forBernardo Silvaat 64′minutesBooked at 85mins
- 11Doku
- 9Haaland
Substitutes
- 5Stones
- 8Kovacic
- 18Ortega
- 20Bernardo Silva
- 21Gómez
- 27Nunes
- 52Bobb
- 76Susoho
- 82Lewis
Chelsea
Formation 4-2-3-1
- 28PetrovicBooked at 62mins
- 27Gusto
- 2Disasi
- 26Colwill
- 21Chilwell
- 25CaicedoBooked at 35mins
- 8Fernández
- 20PalmerBooked at 60minsSubstituted forChalobahat 71′minutes
- 23Gallagher
- 7SterlingSubstituted forNkunkuat 64′minutes
- 15JacksonSubstituted forCasadeiat 82′minutes
Substitutes
- 10Mudryk
- 11Madueke
- 13Bettinelli
- 14Chalobah
- 18Nkunku
- 31Casadei
- 42Gilchrist
- 53Samuels-Smith
- 79Harrison
Live Text
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Match ends, Manchester City 1, Chelsea 1.
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Second Half ends, Manchester City 1, Chelsea 1.
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Corner, Manchester City. Conceded by Trevoh Chalobah.
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Attempt blocked. Rodri (Manchester City) header from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Nathan Aké with a headed pass.
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Attempt blocked. Jérémy Doku (Manchester City) right footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Kevin De Bruyne.
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Corner, Manchester City. Conceded by Malo Gusto.
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Attempt missed. Kyle Walker (Manchester City) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Kevin De Bruyne.
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Nathan Aké (Manchester City) wins a free kick on the left wing.
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Foul by Cesare Casadei (Chelsea).
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Attempt saved. Christopher Nkunku (Chelsea) right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Cesare Casadei with a headed pass.
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Attempt saved. Erling Haaland (Manchester City) header from the centre of the box is saved in the top centre of the goal. Assisted by Kevin De Bruyne with a cross.
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Corner, Manchester City. Conceded by Axel Disasi.
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Offside, Chelsea. Ben Chilwell is caught offside.
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Offside, Chelsea. Malo Gusto is caught offside.
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Bernardo Silva (Manchester City) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
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Foul by Bernardo Silva (Manchester City).
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Moisés Caicedo (Chelsea) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
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Offside, Chelsea. Christopher Nkunku is caught offside.
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Goal! Manchester City 1, Chelsea 1. Rodri (Manchester City) left footed shot from the centre of the box to the top left corner.
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Attempt blocked. Kyle Walker (Manchester City) right footed shot from the right side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Bernardo Silva.