Chelsea travel to Manchester City for long shot at Premier League title

Chelsea travels to Etihad Stadium to face Manchester City. The showdown between the top two clubs in the Premier League table will see Thomas Tuchel’s side attempt to thwart Pep Guardiola’s winning machinery, for a distant shot at the Premier League title. 

While both clubs will have sixteen matches in hand after this fixture, City is already ten points clear of Chelsea. Ahead of the match, there has been some war of words, with Guardiola responding to Tuchel’s claims that Chelsea’s run had been hampered by COVID-19 putting several squad members out of action. The German stated that City didn’t suffer as much due to COVID, which explains the chasm between the two teams. 

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However, Guardiola wouldn’t have any of that and said he felt that his players deserve all the credit for the prolific run. The Spanish manager commented, “Sometimes it’s the money that we have, sometimes it’s Covid. I don’t know. What can I say?” 

Past performances 

City has remained undefeated in the last five matches of the Premier League, while Chelsea managed to win just one, drawing the other four. 

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If Guardiola’s side thwarts Chelsea in today’s fixture, they’d surely decimate any hopes of winning the Premier League that the Stanford Bridge side might harbour. 

Team news – injuries and unavailability 

In the Swindon fixture, City were left without seven senior players including coach Pep Guardiola, due to coronavirus infections. It remains to be seen how many return for today’s fixture. 

Phil Foden and Oleksandr Zinchenko are likely to be out of action, while Riyad Mahrez is away representing Algeria in the Africa Cup of Nations. 

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After battling injuries and COVID infections, Tuchel finally doesn’t have too many additional worries for this match as both Thiago Silva and N’Golo Kante are expected to be game-ready. Edouard Mendy remains unavailable since he’s representing Senegal in the Africa Cup of Nations. Meanwhile, Andreas Christensen is out with coronavirus. 

Starting XI 

Manchester City: Ederson; Walker, Laporte, Stones, Cancelo; Rodri, Silva, De Bruyne; Sterling, Grealish, Foden

Chelsea: Kepa; Rudiger, T. Silva, Sarr; Azpilicueta, Kante, Kovacic, Alonso; Ziyech, Pulisic; Lukaku