Chelsea are meant to be one of Manchester City's main rivals but even they were running scared of Pep Guardiola's impressive machine

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Pep Guardiola would appear to have his rivals where he wants them. Not just below Manchester City in the league table. As he says, we're only just through September and an awful lot of football is still to be played.

No, Guardiola has them where he wants them psychologically. They are unnerved, they are intimidated, maybe even afraid.

The Chelsea team who took on Manchester City at Stamford Bridge were a pale imitation of the side who beat Atletico Madrid so impressively three days earlier.

Pep Guardiola has his rivals where he wants them after Manchester City's win at Chelsea

City's rivals are intimidated by Guardiola's men, who have raced to the top of the league

Antonio Conte's Chelsea played City with eight defence-minded players on the field

They did not risk, they did not dare, they played City with eight defence-minded players on the field, becoming nine when Alvaro Morata departed injured and was replaced by a workhorse, Willian, rather than another striker, Michy Batshuayi. 

For 90 minutes, Antonio Conte paid Guardiola and City the biggest compliment imaginable. He changed for them. He played a home game as if Chelsea were away; his back three became a back five; the champions took on the mantle of inferiors - and still it did not work.

Chelsea's set-up suggested they came to Stamford Bridge for a draw, but could not hold out. In the 67th minute, another moment of wondrousness from Kevin De Bruyne settled the match, and it was thoroughly deserved.

Not that Chelsea were poor. In terms of what they aimed to do, they contained City very well. In the balance of play, they could have gone down by four, and lost instead by one. They defended excellently. It was just that City wanted more from this.

They wanted to dominate possession, they wanted three points, they wanted to be the team everybody left talking about, and that's what they are.

Chelsea aimed for a draw but were beaten by Kevin De Bruyne's fine 67th-minute strike

Watford were the surprise package of the season — and then City put six past them. Liverpool were coming off the back of a watershed win over Arsenal, and went down by five.

Chelsea, too, were considered to be hitting their stride after a victory in Madrid that was understandably acclaimed as one of the finest results for an English  club in the modern Champions League era.

For 20 minutes in the first half, at least, they had dominated one of the strongest European teams of the past decade, and away from home, too. They were still going forward to the last kick of the match — with which Batshuayi scored the winner. Yet this same group looked utterly daunted by the potential of City.  

Conte had clearly decided he could not play them as equals. This wasn't like Chelsea's visit to Tottenham in August. Back then, what appeared a negative selection was born largely of necessity. While Chelsea were set up belt and braces at Wembley, they still managed to have the best chances on the way to victory.

Saturday's win is the latest impressive result in an ominously good season for City so far

This looked very different. Here was a conscious decision not to go toe-to-toe with City, in a way only a fool would try to play Guardiola's Barcelona at their own game. Jose Mourinho had a plan for them, at Inter Milan and then at Real Madrid and, on occasions, it worked. He will no doubt have something in mind for the Manchester derby in December.

He is far too smart to simply try to slug it out. That was Conte's strategy, too. To stay organised, tight and threaten on the counter. Yet City are looking increasingly comfortable in their defensive skin, too. They are coping with Guardiola's preferred high line; well-coached players are slotting into new roles, as Fabian Delph has done at wing-back.

Conte blamed fatigue after a tough Champions League away game but it is too easy to simply say his players were tired. Last season, Chelsea had the advantage of preparing for every game without the distraction of European football, so he is only dealing with life as it was lived by his main rivals a year ago.

Chelsea were not poor but they never looked like getting anything at home against a rival

YOU WERE MEANT TO BE AT HOME!

Manchester City had Chelsea camped in their own half, as shown by these average position graphics. While Alvaro Morata (No 9) and Eden Hazard (No 10) were isolated up front, five City players — Leroy Sane (19), David Silva (21), Kevin De Bruyne (17), Raheem Sterling (7) and Gabriel Jesus (33) — spent most of the game in Chelsea's half...

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It wasn't as if Chelsea tried to play ambitiously, ran out of legs, and changed tack. Their game plan never altered: stifle, contain, counter. Except Eden Hazard was a shadow of the player who terrified Atletico on Wednesday and Morata didn't look fit even before injury forced him off.

Only Mourinho has retained the title at Chelsea and, asked to comment on the prospect — having done it previously with Juventus — Conte was again in retreat.

'That was a completely different situation with Juventus, because we won the title and I was expecting a really strong challenge the  next season from AC Milan,' he said. 

'Instead they sold Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva to PSG, so they became weaker. It wasn't simple second time, but it was easier. Here, from last season to this season, you already had big teams — and now they are even bigger.'

Guardiola has seen results improve after an at times difficult first season in English football

The results bear this out. Guardiola's record against his six biggest rivals in the Premier League — Manchester United, Chelsea, Tottenham, Liverpool, Arsenal and Everton — was dismal, but that is beginning to change.

'Last year, we had big games where I didn't think we did particularly badly, but we had no points to show for it,' said De Bruyne. 'These are the most important games. It's just three points, but to win these ones, it's six points in the end. If the gap is minimal, this will mean a lot.'

Incredibly, despite being a former Chelsea player, this was De Bruyne's first goal at Stamford Bridge. The locals will not need reminding that a player who is an early front-runner for Footballer of the Year was allowed to leave in 2014.

De Bruyne handled the revenge issue with good grace, too. 'I'm way too positive for that,' he said. 'It's just the way it goes. There's no bad feeling at all. They've won two Premier League titles since I left, so they're doing fairly well. It was a good decision to go and, for them, good to let me go.'

It didn't seem the wisest call on Saturday. Not when the price of containing De Bruyne and his team-mates involved sacrificing the rightful swagger of champions and still ended in defeat.