Chelsea 4-4 Manchester City: a comic-book explosion of chaos and screams

Crash! Bang! Wallop! What a football match. In truth, Chelsea 4-4 Manchester City was more like a big-budget cinematic experience; a comic-book explosion of colour in driving rain, starring superheroes from across the Premier League multiverse. BAM! Not one, but two, thudding headers from centre-halves. THWACK! Erling Haaland finding a new part of his body to score with. AGH! Peter Drury and Jamie Carragher reduced to primal screams by the chaotic end to the game. POW! A Lampardian deflected goal from Rodri to surely win the match. GAH! City’s Rolls-Royce centre-backs skidding about like the pre-loved motors that were once parked behind the goal at Stamford Bridge.

If all that wasn’t enough, Chelsea got a last-minute penalty and up stepped Cole Palmer – sold by City in the summer – to blast it home, before offering a statuesque, told-you-so celebration, much like Raheem Sterling when putting Chelsea ahead in the first half. Not quite muted, but nuanced – a nod to the cameras setting up a sequel just before the credits rolled. Palmer even threw in a b@ntorious DVD extra, sidling up to a City tactical huddle before being dragged away by Haaland. And we still haven’t mentioned the whirring legs of Conor Gallagher and Phil Foden, Kyle Walker’s free kick, the dopamine rush of two lengthy VAR checks, or Mauricio Pochettino throwing in a post-whistle meltdown just to add some extra spice.

Yes, after a big-budget reboot that has repeatedly tanked, Chelsea are finally entertaining neutrals for the right reasons again. After five goals in their first eight league games (three of which were in one game, against Luton), Pochettino’s cast of hopefuls have scored 14 in their last five, serving up two Premier League all-timers in the space of six days. Having shaken off their collective uncertainty in a trust exercise at nine-man Spurs, Sunday’s full-throttle performance saw Chelsea go toe-to-toe with the division’s very best. “Did you have fun?” Pep Guardiola asked assembled hacks in the post-match presser. Yes we did – and more surprisingly, so did he.

For so long, Pep’s trophy magnets have been the Premier League’s ruthless spoilers, controlling the narrative and ensuring the final act plays out in their favour. Here, Guardiola appeared to embrace the chaos, fielding an attacking lineup and sticking to his guns as the game swung repeatedly from his grasp. What was expected to be an intriguing battle of systems instead descended into the kind of HyperBarclays soaraway shootout that would usually put Pep in a week-long funk. But when all is said and done, City took a point and are still top despite some early-season rebuilding issues. They have made a habit of winning two-horse title races, but this season could be different, with four teams – Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham and Aston Villa – within three points of the summit. Next up for City – a home game against Jürgen Klopp’s resurgent Reds. Cor! That’s coming up on … 25 November? That’s right – it’s another international-break intermission. Time to refill the popcorn.

“I can’t see him as an old man. He still is my hero. I still can’t believe he’s gone really … He seemed to glide across the pitch. His passing was immaculate. You knew once he had the ball it was going in like a rocket. It was fantastic to watch”– Jimmy Turner, an 84-year-old Manchester United fan, pays tribute to Sir Bobby Charlton as fans lined up outside Old Trafford to pay their respects before the United legend’s funeral.

Re: experiencing crowd trouble in South America (Friday’s Football Daily letters). A few years ago, we were in Quito, Ecuador, and tried to get tickets for the big match (Quito something v Guayaquil) on Saturday night. The match was changed to a Sunday morning as the police had the fixture changed on the grounds, apparently, that it was easier to manage a full-blown riot in the daylight than under lights at night. Unable to get tickets online, we turned up at the stadium, hoping to get tickets there, failed, so we joined the huge crowd on top of the hill, outside the ground, watching the game through a fence with razor wire along the top. Oh yes, there was an armoured personnel carrier, about the size of a small battleship, parked there as well, presumably ‘just in case’. Those were the days …” – Richard Samwell.

A friend of mine from Argentina took her Swedish boyfriend to a Boca Juniors home game. I asked her how that went. ‘Great, he wasn’t too scared and we got out alive,’ she said. Test passed!” – Ben Bull.

Send your letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s letter o’ the day winner is … Ben Bull, who gets a copy of United with Dad by Simon Lloyd, published by Pitch Publishing. Visit their brilliant football book store here.

There’s a lot to love about this this backheeled volley from Chells Rovers’ Charlie Unwin against The C0ck FC [you’re better than that – Football Daily Ed], not least the classic black and white hexagonal ball he scored it with, or the last-gasp 5-4 scoreline. Sunday League football at its very best.

“Did you see the game?” read a text from our Union-Berlin-loving, mullet-and-tache-sporting, Substack-plugging, box-midfield-appreciation cousin, Football Hipster Daily. He was, of course, referring to the Swedish title showdown between Malmö and Elfsborg. After an hour-long, pyro-fuelled delay at half-time, Malmö won the match and the trophy through an Isaac Kiese Thelin penalty. Elfsborg, who had already missed one chance to seal the title against relegated Varberg, saw a first Allsvenskan since 2012 slip away on goal difference.

That wasn’t the only haunting Scandi drama this weekend. In the Norwegian third tier, Lyn needed a win and a five-goal swing over Egersund to earn automatic promotion. They didn’t hold back, hammering Fram 10-1 – but Egersund’s 5-0 win over Vard Haugesund saw them cling on to top spot by a single goal. Lyn-sanity! Back in Sweden, Hammarby won the women’s title, also on goal difference, with a 2-0 win at Norrköping enjoyed by more than 7,000 away fans. Madelen Janogy’s first-half double proved just enough as rivals Häcken could only put four past Pitea in their match. In the Finnish men’s top-flight, meanwhile, KuPS beat HJK on the final day but HJK still won the title on goal difference. We mentioned this to Hipster Daily, but he said Finland isn’t actually part of Scandinavia, so we blocked him.

The English FA has launched an investigation into one of its own council members, who has been forced to apologise for saying that “Adolf Hitler would be proud of Benjamin Netanyahu”.

Palestine’s World Cup qualifier with Lebanon on Thursday has been moved to Sharjah, in the UAE, from Beirut due to the impact of the Israel-Hamas war in the region.

Cole Palmer, Ezri Konsa and Rico Lewis have been called up to the England squad for the first time to replace a variety of knacked squad members for the Euro 2024 qualifiers against Malta and North Macedonia.

Is Jürgen Klopp happy that Liverpool face a top-of-the-table clash with Manchester City at 12.30pm straight after the international break? Of course he’s not. “Honestly, the people making these decisions, they cannot feel football,” he yelped.

Perhaps after being alarmed by Matt Taylor’s assessment that Rotherham, 22nd in the Championship, had gone to a “dark place” recently, the board have taken the opportunity of a 5-0 thrashing by Watford to launch their manager through the door marked Do One.

If you want a job doing properly, do it yourself section: Como part-owner Cesc Fàbregas has been named interim manager after the Serie B club parted ways with Moreno Longo.

And Brighton boss Roberto De Zerbi has admitted he does not like “80% of Premier League referees”, which seems a modest figure given the regularity of his full-funk explosions in the technical area.

A review of the WSL action this weekend. You’re welcome. And if it’s Premier League talking points you’re after, here you go.

Chelsea unleashed. By Jonathan Liew.

Xabi Alonso’s league-leading Leverkusen put on an exhibition against Union Berlin – they’re in the title race for the long haul, reckons Andy Brassell.

The leadership vacuum is hurting Napoli where Rudi Garcia is nearing the end, writes Nicky Bandini.

In Ligue 1, Lyon are so bad these days that losing to them is a sackable offence – as Rennes’ Bruno Génésio may be about to discover. Adam White reports.

“I’m like a proud gay aunt”: Megan Rapinoe bids farewell to game she helped transform.

Babies, battle ropes and Billy Joel: how Doncaster Rovers reach out. By Paul MacInnes.

And was Manchester United’s win against Luton another false dawn? Will Unwin thinks it probably was, yup.

12 January 1997: Auf Wiedersehen, Pet star Jimmy Nail shows his acting prowess by pretending to win the Sky Sports Player of the Year Award for 1996 off the actual winner, Alan Shearer. Honk!