Manchester City vs Chelsea – Preview, Lineups, Match Facts And Prediction
Manchester City vs Chelsea
Sunday 16th August, 16:00
Manchester City host the champions this weekend in an early title-race crunch match. City got off to a flying start, beating West Brom 3-0 on Monday night, whilst Chelsea stuttered to a 2-2 draw at home to Swansea.
Manchester City will be hoping that Yaya Toure can repeat his Monday night performance where he bagged a brace. Toure made 66 passes in the opposition half, the second highest total in the division. He is clearly trusted by his teammates too as he received 78 passes, the fourth highest in the Premier League. Toure has enjoyed some good battles with Chelsea midfielder Nemanja Matic in the past and this weekend should be no different. Matic covered the ninth most ground in the league on the opening weekend, running 11.72km. In addition, Matic won four tackles, ranking him 11th in the division.
David Silva was in inspired form against West Brom and was in fact the only player to have completed more passes in the opposition half than teammate Yaya Toure, with an incredible 79 passes. Silva set up four goalscoring opportunities for his teammate, and could well prove to be a tricky customer for the Chelsea defence. At the heart of that Chelsea defence is John Terry and Gary Cahill, who have been in 19 duels between them – and look sure to add to that total this weekend.
Eden Hazard completed by far and away the most dribbles of any Premier League player last season and has started this campaign in a similar fashion. Hazard sits third in the dribbling rankings, on five successful dribbles, after the first weekend. Bacary Sagna started in the fullback role often occupied by Pablo Zabaleta last season. Should Sagna start again, he will need another strong performance against the reigning PFA Player Of The Year. Sagna won 100% of his tackles last week as well as succeeding in 95.2% of his passes.
Cesar Azpilicueta will occupy what has now become his regular spot at left back. He will likely come up against his Spanish compatriot Jesus Navas. Azpilicueta last week managed to complete 100% of his tackles, and made five important clearances for Chelsea. Navas covered an impressive 11.59km last week, with a top speed of 32.2km/h, and his energy is likely to challenge Azpilicueta. Navas is 16/1 to score first with 888sport.com.
Manchester City vs Chelsea Match Facts:
- Chelsea are unbeaten in their last four Premier League games against Manchester City (W2, D2).
- However, Chelsea have won just one of their previous seven games at the Etihad Stadium in all competitions (W1, D1, L5)
- Manuel Pellegrini’s side have won their last seven Premier League home games, keeping clean sheets in six of those matches.
- The last time they failed to win a top-flight home game was on 7 February, when they drew 1-1 with Hull City.
- City completed 693 passes against West Brom – 212 more than any other team in the opening round of Premier League fixtures.
- Chelsea have not lost any of their last 28 Premier League games in the month of August (W23, D5) since a 2-1 defeat at Middlesbrough in 2006.
- The last time they failed to win either of their opening two Premier League games was in 1998.
Stats courtesy BBC.
Manchester City vs Chelsea Possible Lineups:
Manchester City: Hart; Sagna, Kompany, Mangala, Clichy; Fernandinho, Toure, Silva, Navas, Sterling; Aguero
Chelsea: Begovic; Ivanovic, Terry, Cahill, Azpilicueta; Matic, Fabregas; Moses, Hazard, Willian; Costa
Manchester City vs Chelsea Prediction:
A 1-1 draw.
Data supplied by the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index. Select and manage your own team of stars with at http://fantasy.premierleague.com/ or with FIFA Ultimate team.
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