Pep Guardiola's Haaland response for Man City vs Chelsea showed battle between chaos and control

Manchester City’s win at Stamford Bridge last season could have felt like vindication for Pep Guardiola. It was early January and a time when the treble looked a long way away. The debate wasn’t over how many trophies City would win, but who should be in the team.

Guardiola was cherishing control but supporters weren’t necessarily feeling the buzz when Jack Grealish and Riyad Mahrez lined up on the wings and looked to slow games down. At that stage of the season it wasn’t always working either.

City would, of course, find their rhythm. Grealish would become integral and Bernardo Silva would take Mahrez’s place in the side. But at Chelsea in early January Guardiola called for Mahrez and Grealish after an hour with the game goalless and watched them combine for the only goal three minutes later. Then they could control it.

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There was very little control on show on Sunday, but then it feels like Guardiola’s City have learnt to lean into the occasional bit of chaos. Or 108 minutes of unhinged madness as this game turned out to be. When Grealish stepped off the bench just before the hour mark this time, City led a gun-slinging shootout of a game 3-2 and everybody was on the edge of their seats.

It was the player who occupied Grealish’s position that summed up the change in this side, especially when they had to do without John Stones, one half of the counter-attack killers alongside Rodri. But maybe the decision to play Jeremy Doku on the left, handing him the biggest start of his City career, was precisely because Stones was unavailable.

Since his return from injury we have seen how Rodri and Stones can