Chelsea 0-1 Manchester City: It's taken me this long to compose myself enough to write this.

Chelsea were outclassed, out fought and second best to Pep Guardiola’s side on Saturday night and that’s the disappointing thing after our heroics in Madrid last Wednesday night.

Antonio Conte has brought success back to Stamford Bridge but like all of us who witnessed our performance on the night, there is still plenty of work to be done because for one reason or another, we have seen a fair few games in which Chelsea have looked a shadow of themselves and simply haven’t turned up.

If anything, it’s almost like “after the lord mayor’s show” at times with this Chelsea team. First, the FA Cup final back in May. We had just won the Premier League and had celebrated in doing so big time as the trophy was presented to us at Stamford Bridge. A week or so later, we take on Arsenal in the FA Cup final and within five minutes we all knew that this was a different side to the team that had romped their way to winning the Premier League.

The same can now be said of Manchester City the other night. We had our night in Madrid creating Champions League history and had basked in the plaudits we had received given our performance. Not a single English side had beaten Atletico in the Champions League heading into the game. Not only did we beat them, we dominated them and made their team look ordinary which is a feat considering the record they have in the competition of late.

Heading into Saturday against Pep’s side, I was full of confidence hoping that we could really kick on and give a similar display because although they have fantastic attacking talent, I still believe their defence to be ordinary at best without the leadership and influence of Vincent Kompany.

However, just as with the FA Cup final, I could tell in the initial stages that this just wasn’t going to be our day as our game plan was totally wrong. We sat back and allowed City to have possession of the ball and dictate the game. We were relying on Eden Hazard and Alvaro Morata to hurt them on the counter-attack but it never materialised. Hazard became a frustrated figure as he would pick the ball up only to find a real lack of support more often than note because the team were playing ten yards too deep.

We all should be honest when we saw the team selection from the manager here. When we saw just two changes to the side that had played so well in Madrid we were all pleased as we were hoping for a repeat performance. In hindsight, starting with Pedro and Willian would have been the better option to take the game to our opponents with fresh legs and impetus.

Fortunately for us, our defence were standing firm despite making a real hash at times of the managers insistence that we play the ball out from the back, needlessly putting ourselves under pressure. I thought that Andreas Christensen more then held his own, Toni Rudiger had a good game and Gary Cahill is suffering from the continued social media campaign against him which is scandalous in my eyes.

Chelsea lacked real punch and fluidity going forward with the ball and that’s gutting for me considering the threat we have. We were the home side and were expected to take the game to City but it never happened.

A blow for Chelsea was Alvaro Morata being substituted as a precaution in the first half with hamstring problems. Willian came on as his direct replacement which was strange as Michy Batshuayi in my view would have been the better alternative, at least we would still have a focal point up front.

Pedro came on too late once again for me with Batshuayi and despite some promising moments late on in the second half, Chelsea were beaten with an excellent goal from Kevin DeBruyne. What annoyed me was the obvious elation from City at their goal and the victory because they knew just how much this game means to them as Pep Guardiola spoke openly about Chelsea being the benchmark as champions.

I just wish that everyone involved in the first team felt the same.