Luiz refuses to hit out at Aguero

Diego Costa, Willian and Eden Hazard were on target as Chelsea laid down a marker in the Premier League title race by producing a superb second-half comeback to win 3-1 at Manchester City, who ended the match with nine men.

The pair also have history with Aguero having sparked a furore with a two-footed challenge on the Brazilian in the 2013 FA Cup semi-final. “I can’t, but what I saw at the end, and it may be the wrong thing to say, I liked that”, Neville told the Sky Sports podcast. All of a sudden it looked that Chelsea’s players were out-performing their City counterparts – not on a football level but a physical one.

With City stunned, their frustrations embodied themselves in Sergio Aguero, who lunged knee-high into David Luiz. “To give my opinion when you lose it looks like an excuse”.

Aguero is now staring down the barrel of a three to four match ban with many stating that the heated moment was out of character for the Argentine striker.

“The game at Celtic Park seems to be a complete one-off in terms of the incredible atmosphere and the attitude that the Celtic players adopted”, he said.

Antonio Conte’s Chelsea produced a stunning display of pressing game in an ill-tampered Premier League game against Manchester City to take all three points even as fellow title contenders Arsenal found their missing mojo against West Ham on Saturday.

The late scuffles marred what had been a compelling contest, albeit one that had seen emotions run high throughout.

Conte, however, supported the referee’s decision and praised the Chelsea players for their behaviour.

Manchester City were left reeling after dominating for most of the first hour. It almost did that early in the second half, but Kevin De Bruyne managed to hit the bar from just a few yards out in the 57th minute.

The Chelsea manager had some nice words for out-of-favour midfielder Cesc Fabregas after he set Costa up with a fantastic pass to equalise.

Saturday’s 3-1 win over Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium had underlined their Premier League title credentials as they forged clear at the top of the table.

Luiz said: “Yes, it is very nice but the league hasn’t finished yet. But we must continue to work and improve”. Every single match is hard.

Struggling champions Leicester remain just two points above the relegation zone after a fifth successive league game without a win.

Shortly before half-time, Ilkay Gundogan appeared to be caught by N’Golo Kante as he shaped to shoot from Aguero’s lay-off, but again Taylor was unmoved. The same can not be said for City. “It’s a red card, okay, we are going to deal with that”. We have to stay in this position.

“We’ve got a few players out, hopefully we’ll have them back soon”.

It is a stroke of class from David Luiz, after a game that had very little.