(Football news) Manchester City secured a 4-0 victory over Chelsea in the FA Cup, which was their second victory over the Blues in four days to set up a possible clash against Arsenal in the next round. Riyad Mahrez opened the scoring for the hosts in the 23rd minute with a magnificent freekick while Julian Alvarez doubled the advantage seven minutes later from the spot. Phil Foden then capitalised on a brilliant team effort to score City’s third goal in the 38th minute while Mahrez doubled his tally in the 85th minute from a penalty.

Manchester City could potentially face Arsenal in the next round if the Gunners defeat Oxford United while things are getting from bad to worse for Chelsea who have failed to progress into the fourth round of the FA Cup for the first time this century. To say that pressure is at an all time high for Graham Potter would be an understatement as the manager has now lost six from his last nine games in all competitions and hasn’t won a game for the Blues since October against RB Salzburg.

In team news, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola made seven changes with only four players: Kyle Walker, Rodri, Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden retaining their place in the starting lineup from midweek. As for Chelsea, Potter made six changes to the side that lost to City with Bashir Humphreys featuring in the lineup for the first time while new signing Benoit Badiashile was on the bench.

A minute’s applause was observed for former Chelsea striker Gianluca Vialli who passed away recently and the away fans were also heard chanting his name in the ninth minute. Chelsea players also wore a pre-match jersey with the number 9 on it as a tribute to Vialli, who also wore the number 9 jersey for the Blues.

“We made an incredibly intense game against a top side. Next round of the FA Cup. Happy to still be in there. I have a feeling that we have incredible human beings and players. When we have this incredible hunger, we don’t give them time to think about it. They did not have time. When that happens it is because we are alive. As a manager, you realise something is dropping when these actions we are not doing. It is easy for me as manager because I can show them the clips and say, ‘This is what you need to be doing.’ This is what we need to do.”

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola

“I thought we were second best to a very, very good side. Obviously, we are not in a great moment ourselves and even though it was a cagey first 20 minutes we couldn’t attack the backline well enough, we couldn’t attack as well as we would like. I think Manchester City do really well in terms of stopping you doing that. At the same time, we struggled. It was a fantastic first goal in terms of a strike from a free-kick, and a strange penalty and you are caught in a position where it is 2-0 and you have to chase the ball against Manchester City.

“You are caught between trying to commit more men and not getting opened up. So the first half was painful and tough for us all. Second half, we had to respond and I thought there were some positives there in terms of the young players. I thought they gave everything and showed their quality but we are disappointed we went out of the competition. Congratulations to Man City. They deserved to win, of course.”

Chelsea manager Graham Potter

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