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Can Manchester City stop Chelsea? Probably not…

Manchester City vs Chelsea
Premier League
City of Manchester Stadium, Manchester
Saturday, 25th September 2010
12:45 BST

Early title favourites Chelsea will finally see themselves pitted against a team they can realistically refer to as ‘rivals’ this Saturday, as they take on Manchester City in a bid to keep their faultless, though ever-so-slightly misleading, 100% record intact.

Whereas Chelsea have systematically dismantled all that have had the misfortune to cross them, City aren’t quite living up to their considerable bluster this term – although, by having to play Tottenham and Liverpool straight off the bat, it’s fair to say that their early schedule hasn’t been quite as forgiving as that of their opponents.

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After flexing their considerable financial muscles once again over the summer, many expected to see the sizeable outlay manifest itself on the pitch immediately, but a slightly indifferent start to the campaign sees them already lying seven points off the pace – meaning that Roberto Mancini‘s side aren’t quite breathing down the necks of the Premier League’s elite just yet.

The formbook:

Manchester City have only won three of their last ten Premier League matches, and have only managed to find the net six times during the opening five league fixtures of the 2010/11 season – although they have managed to maintain a healthy scoring rate across their entire competitive schedule.

Whereas their ‘goals for’ column makes for fairly unremarkable viewing, the fact that City have only conceded two goals in the league so far is firstly testament to the extensive work that Mancini has put into shoring up his defensive unit, and also to the excellent form that ‘keeper Joe Hart continues to display at both domestic and international level.

By contrast, Chelsea are averaging 4.2 goals a game so, by proxy, their ‘goals conceded’ tally is fairly inconsequential – although, perhaps rather dauntingly from a City perspective, the 85th minute consolation goal that West Ham midfielder Scott Parker looped over Petr Cech a fortnight ago is the only goal that Carlo Ancelotti‘s outfit have allowed to blot their defensive copybook.

Both sides suffered ignominious exit’s from the Carling Cup in midweek, but the respective team selections seemed to infer that both Mancini and his compatriot Ancelotti’s priorities lie elsewhere this season.

City had only won two out of their previous 24 Premier League meetings with Chelsea before beating them at home and at Stamford Bridge last season. However, no other team has won more Premier League games at the City of Manchester Stadium (or Maine Road) than Chelsea, who have been victorious on 10 separate occasions.

The last five Premier League meetings:

• 27 February 2010,  Chelsea 2-4 Man City, Stamford Bridge

• 5 December 2009, Man City 2-1 Chelsea, CoMS

• 15 March 2009, Chelsea 1-0 Man City, Stamford Bridge

• 13 September 2008, Man City 1-3 Chelsea, CoMS

• 5 April 2008, Man City 0-2 Chelsea, CoMS

The build-up in quotes:

“It is an important test for us, but it is also an important test for [City]. We have not played against the top teams but we are playing well. It is necessary for us to do it against the top teams.”

Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti is fully aware of the threat that Man City pose.

“If I was a defender playing against Chelsea, I would be very scared because you don’t know where we’re going to come from. For example we have Ashley Cole bombing forward on the left side all the time, so it is hard to know what to expect when we have all these players bombing forward all the time.”

Chelsea anchor Jon Obi Mikel wouldn’t fancy lining up for City this weekend.

“It’s very difficult to win a quadruple, but why not? If we do it it will be an amazing season. I think to keep the title will be difficult, even if people see us as one of the best teams with Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool. That’s why we’re here – we want to prove we are the champions and we want to keep the Premier League trophy.”

Chelsea striker Didier Drogba clearly signals his intent.

“We have big problems.”

City manager Roberto Mancini eloquently sums up his side’s injury woes (more on that below).

“We were delighted to beat them twice last season and we hope to do it again. It’s going to be a really exciting game. We need to make sure we take something from it. If we can get one point that would be great, but if we can get all three like we did twice last season, that would be fantastic.”

City vice-captain Kolo Toure is confident of continuing his side’s winning streak.

Injury updates:

Manchester City have a real concern when it comes to defensive cover, and are relying heavily on Micah Richards to recover sufficiently from a hamstring injury to start in the right-back berth. Should Richards miss the cut, Pablo Zabaleta will be likely to fill in with Gareth Barry or James Milner dropping into the left-back slot.

As is stands, Mancini only has three fit senior defenders to choose from (namely Zabaleta, Vincent Kompany and Kolo Toure) as Jerome Boateng (knee), Wayne Bridge (thigh), Aleksandar Kolarov (ankle) and Joleon Lescott (groin) are all still sidelined.

Winger Shaun Wright-Phillips and one of their many summer signings Mario Balotelli are also ruled out as both are struggling with troublesome knee injuries.

Chelsea are equally plagued with injury woes, after seeing three players (Yossi Benayoun, Gael Kakuta and Saloman Kalou) limp out of their midweek Carling Cup defeat to Newcastle. Frank Lampard is also a major doubt for the fixture, with Ancelotti now reluctantly accepting that the influential midfielder will not have recovered from his hernia surgery sufficiently in time to play.

Key players:

Manchester City’s newly-installed captain Carlos Tevez has scored 24 goals in his last 28 Premier League outings and notched five in his last four games against Chelsea – with stats like that, you’d put your salary on him finding the net on Saturday.

Chelsea’s attacking triumvirate is likely to consist of pointman Didier Drogba, laconic linkman Nicolas Anelka and pacey poacher Florent Malouda – a combination that is becoming so ruthlessly devastating that it’s difficult to pick a key man. However, given his imperious match-winning contributions of late, it’s going to be Drogba that gets the nod narrowly ahead of his colleagues.

Prediction:

Chelsea’s unstoppable juggernaut rolls on, but they’re finally made to break a sweat in pursuit of their victory.

Manchester City 1-2 Chelsea

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Topics: Chelsea, English Premier League, Features, Manchester City, Match Reports