Shaun Wright-Phillips named the one player who changed the game for Manchester City in their 1-0 victory against Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final.
On paper, the contest between the two sides looked like a mismatch in favour of Pep Guardiola’s men.
However, that was not the case at Wembley Stadium in any capacity as City needed their key players to step up to the plate in the FA Cup semi-final.
Going forward, the Sky Blues seemed rather blunt.
Their attack had a bias towards the left-hand side, with all the impetus seemingly being on Jack Grealish and Kevin De Bruyne to create or score a goal.
Meanwhile, Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden were largely kept uninvolved and as a result, they did not have much of an impact on the game.
Until of course, the former scored the winner against Mauricio Pochettino’s side.
Wright-Phillips says one player changed the game for City vs Chelsea
But before the goal, it seemed like City would simply not score as the game seemed destined for extra-time.
Manchester City’s attempts were defended by Chelsea’s backline, who did not provide them with any space on offer to exploit.
Often, City’s own sloppiness in the final third cost them as well.
With Erling Haaland not even in the matchday squad through injury, City’s primary goalscorer was also missing for them against Chelsea.
However, in games such as these where the attack is not clicking, a team requires a player to either produce a game-changing moment or start to pick things up for his side.
Otherwise, the contest becomes at risk of falling into the other side’s favour.
Thankfully for Manchester City, Jeremy Doku decided to be the difference-maker for them against Chelsea, according to Shaun Wright-Phillips.
“I think [Jeremy] Doku coming on changed the game for us. He was fantastic”, he said [via Manchester City’s official YouTube channel].
“He just brings something different and Chelsea were playing with such a low block, you needed somebody to create and drive the ball in with low crosses because there is no [Erling] Haaland. We know Chelsea can defend those high crosses.”
Jeremy Doku was exceptional
In our view, Shaun Wright-Phillips is spot on about Jeremy Doku, who did indeed change the game for Manchester City against Chelsea.
The Belgian replaced Jack Grealish and as soon as he came on, he was unafraid to take on Malo Gusto.
The 21-year-old danced past him on a few occasions and even when the Chelsea players were doubling up on him, that did not impact his intent whatsoever.
Whether it be by the touchline or in deeper areas, Doku had the beating of his man.
For Bernardo Silva’s goal, it was Jeremy Doku’s incisive pass to Kevin De Bruyne that was the pre-assist as he put in a sparkling cameo off the bench.