There are times that come few and far between that the international break actually feels about right for football. The Premier League has earned this one.
For the final time in 2023, international fixtures split up the calendar but on this occasion there can be few complaints. Chelsea alone have been involved in games with 13 goals in the past week, West Ham have had back-to-back 3-2 wins and VAR needs a rest.
It is, then, off the back of four points against the league's top two, that Chelsea enter the fortnight off from domestic duty. Still in tenth place and nine points behind Aston Villa in fifth but with a renewed sense of feeling.Mauricio Pochettino's side have embraced a torrid run of games and, dare it be said, are starting to win some over.
«It is really satisfying to go to an international break with this feeling,» the boss said on Instagram after the game. «Although I prefer we have another game more sooner!» The fans might not echo that sentiment for once after being put through the ringer emotionally in the past week.
This time it was Manchester City in town, the toughest test there is, and Chelsea rose to the moment. Having not scored against their opponents since Kai Havertz's Champions League winning goal in 2021 they fired four past Pep Guardiola's men, the first time he has conceded over three in a game since Pochettino's Tottenham did it in 2019.
Here's how an all-time Premier League classic went down with the national media.
Jonathan Liew writes: «What constitutes success amid the permanent concussion of post-Abramovich Chelsea? Top four? A sense of stylistic progress? An unchanged starting XI?
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Cole Palmer's
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