Those fortunate enough to witness the most recent Chelsea match this weekend were treated to an undoubted Premier League classic. The warning signs were there ahead of the game against Manchester City though. After all, the Blues had just played in one of the craziest ever games just six days before.
On that occasion, Mauricio Pochettino and co had travelled to north London to take on his former side Tottenham Hotspur. Despite going behind, Chelsea fought their way back into the game – thanks to two red cards, a penalty, and Ange Postecoglou’s bold high line – and managed to win the match 4-1 in the end.
Chelsea play second crazy game in space of six days
As if that wasn’t enough drama, the west London club’s following league fixture through up another belter. Indeed, coming up against Man City, it was never going to be an easy game and home fans would have been fearing the worst after Erling Haaland opened the scoring from the penalty spot.
That fear turned to jubilance as two goals in the space of eight minutes, from Thiago Silva and Raheem Sterling, turned the game on its head. But before half-time, City were level again with Manuel Akanji getting on the scoresheet just before the break.
Haaland then scored again to put Pep Guardiola’s side ahead but Chelsea weren’t ready to go down without a fight as Nicolas Jackson made it 3-3. Goals from Rodri and Cole Palmer in the final ten minutes of action made for a breathless finish, as the game finally ended all square at 4-4. After all the chaos, Guardiola accepted it was a fun game for the neutral, telling BBC Sport:
“It was a good advert and entertaining game for the Premier League and both teams wanted to win. I wouldn’t have expected differently, Chelsea have a fantastic team and players.”
Palmer holds nerve to seal Chelsea draw vs Man City
As posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, he shared a screenshot which showed that he put £30 pounds on an accumulator which would pay back £28,500 if Haaland scored two or more goals; Palmer scored at any time; Palmer got a yellow card; Rodri got a yellow card; Jackson had over 0.5 shots on target; and Sterling had had over 0.5 shots on target.
Haaland got his two goals by the early stages of the second half and Sterling and Jackson managed their shots when they each hit the back of the net. Rodri got his yellow card in the 72nd minute, while Palmer was booked early on in the first half.
This meant that five of the six bets had come good but Harratt still needed the Palmer goal if he was to get the full payout. So when the former Man City winger was given the chance to score from the spot in the 96th minute, it’s hard to know who would have been feeling more nervous.
Indeed, Harrat later wrote on X that he was “shaking” as he watched Palmer take the penalty. Thankfully the Chelsea man kept his cool as he slotted in the eighth goal of the game, giving his side a precious point and one lucky punter a whopping £28,500.
