Former Chelsea midfielder Craig Burley has claimed that Manchester City lacked the killer instinct at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, due to the unavailability of their talisman Sergio Aguero.
Pep Guardiola’s men suffered their first defeat of the Premier League season when they succumbed to a 2-0 loss away from home at Chelsea on Saturday.
The defending champions were undone by an immense second half performance from Chelsea, who rode their luck in the first half before N’Golo Kante gave them a lead just before the interval.
David Luiz snatched all three points for Chelsea through a header in the 78th minute to hand the visitors their first defeat in the Premier League this term.
Manchester City opted to deploy Raheem Sterling as a centre-forward on Saturday due to the unavailability of Aguero, who missed out due to injury.
Burley thinks that Manchester City suffered the lack of a killer instinct in the final third due to the absence of Aguero.
“They [Manchester City] missed the fact that they did not have a natural striker”, Burley said on ESPN FC.
“They had Sterling through the middle, they had [Leroy] Sane, they had [Riyad] Mahrez.
“[Gabriel] Jesus was on the bench, Aguero was unavailable and I think they missed that killer instinct in the final third.
“Yes [without Aguero the killer instinct is not there as much], because Sterling’s stats are very good compared to previous years, but he is not a natural goalscorer.
“Neither is Leroy Sane; Riyad Mahrez will pitch in with the odd spectacular goal, don’t forget there is no Kevin De Bruyne getting forward from midfield either.”
Manchester City slipped to second in the league table following the defeat at Chelsea and will next face Hoffenheim in the Champions League on Wednesday.
