Three goals Manchester City stun Chelsea

Manchester City set out their ambitions for the Barclays Premier League title with a 3-0 victory over Chelsea on Sunday.

The 2013/14 champions dominated the team to whom they lost the title last season, but Sergio Aguero found Chelsea goalkeeper Asmir Begovic in inspired form during the opening period and was denied time and again from breaking the deadlock. The Citty striker eventually found a way past the Chelsea goalkeeper shortly after the half-hour, having created space for himself in the Chelsea box.

Vincent Kompany doubled the lead with his second goal in as many matches in the 79th minute, before Fernandinho made certain of the three points with a fierce drive six minutes later.

Begovic came into the Chelsea starting XI for the suspended Thibaut Courtois as one of two changes to the side who drew 2-2 with Swansea City last weekend, and the former Stoke City goalkeeper was called into action inside the opening minute when Aguero, in for Wilfried Bony as City's only alteration, was sent through on goal by David Silva. The Argentinian failed to find a way past Begovic and Jesus Navas drilled wide from the rebound.

Begovic was making a promising start to his full Chelsea debut and got down brilliantly to his left to keep out another Aguero strike on 16 minutes, before pulling off an almost identical save from the same man a minute later.

As encouraged as Mourinho will have been by the early performance of his stand-in goalkeeper, that Begovic had so much action in the opening 20 minutes will have given the Chelsea manager cause for concern. The Portuguese's fears were realised in the 31st minute, when Aguero and Yaya Toure exchanged passes on the edge of the box, the former bamboozling Gary Cahill before guiding a low effort beyond Begovic into the bottom left corner.

Cesc Fabregas fired just wide as the visitors chased an equaliser and, after making such a positive start, Begovic found himself responsible for giving Cahill a bloodied nose as he attempted to punch clear an Aleksandar Kolarov free-kick in the 44th minute that Eliaquim Mangala headed narrowly wide.

Mourinho replaced John Terry with Kurt Zouma for the second half, the first time he has substituted his captain in the Barclays Premier League. Chelsea started brightly and Ramires thought he had pulled Chelsea level five minutes in, but the assistant referee raised his flag for offside as the Brazilian wheeled off in celebration.

Chelsea pressed higher up in the second period and could have restored parity after 70 minutes when the ball found its way to the feet of Eden Hazard in the box after a counter-attack, but the Belgian fired straight at goalkeeper Joe Hart.

The visitors then fell further behind as Kompany outmuscled Branislav Ivanovic at a corner to double City's advantage with a goal similar to the one he scored at West Bromwich Albion on Monday. The victory was complete five minutes from time, Fernandinho rifling in from the edge of the area after Chelsea failed to clear their lines.

Diego Costa hit a post in stoppage time, but a Chelsea goal would not have spoiled City's day.#

Man City manager Manuel Pellegrini: "To play against Chelsea is always very difficult – they defend with a lot of players and are fast on the counter-attack. But today we made a complete game, not only because we scored three goals but in the first 45 minutes we could have scored three more.

"Only the great performance of Asmir Begovic was the reason why we couldn't. We played in the way I like, to always try to score more. It was a great performance."

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho: "It is a fake result. We were the best team by far in the second half. What they did in the first we did in the second.

"We dominated and when they feel they are in trouble, and they felt, they changed Aguero and Sterling, they try to recover control of the game is exactly when they scored the second goal. For me, completely fake.

"Their goalkeeper was good and we couldn't score. They were only coming up with long balls and even that we controlled that. Not one single problem in the second half, they had lots."