Chelsea v Manchester City – The Opposition

Manchester City travel to Stamford Bridge to face league leaders Chelsea in the lunch time kick off. The blues sit just tow points behind the West London club and need to avoid defeat in order to keep pace with the teams at the top.

The blues drew their last Premier League match at home to Southampton, but hit Wycombe for six in their League Cup encounter on Tuesday, and City will welcome back a wealth of stars for the clash at Kings Road.

As an added incentive, City will be looking to avenge their Champions League final defeat to the London blues in May and finally get one over on Thomas Tuchel, whose side beat the blues three times last season.

Form

Chelsea are looking strong already. They have won four and drawn one of their five games, including a 2-0 win at Arsenal and a 3-0 victory at Spurs. Their other two wins have been home matches against Crystal Palace and Aston Villa, both 3-0, while in the Champions League, Chelsea beat Zenit 1-0 in the opening match.

Danger Men

The blues main issue last season was scoring, but they have solved that problem with the signing of Romelu Lukaku. The Belgian striker has scored four goals in five games and has attempted 10 shots since his return, giving him a shot accuracy of 70% and a goal conversion of 40%. Nine players have scored one apiece and it looks like the scoring responsibilities are resting on Lukaku’s shoulders.

Mateo Kovacic is proving a big danger from midfield. The Croatian has played six matches and claimed three assist, while scoring one goal. Already this season, he has attempted 408 passes, with 378 completed, giving him a pass accuracy of 93%, so City will have to be at their very best to stop these two.

Who’s The Boss?

Thomas Tuchel is currently occupying the Stamford Bridge hotseat. The German has only presided over 37 games for Chelsea, but has won 24 of those matches, losing just five, giving him a win percentage of 65%.

Last Time Out

City face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge last January while Frank Lampard was manager, and City raced into a 3-0 half time lead. Goals by Ilkay Gundogan, Phil Foden and Kevin de Bruyne gave City a 3-1 win.