Week six of the English Premier League resumes on Saturday with an early kick off between Chelsea and Manchester City.
Host Chelsea appears to be the favorite as they have not lost a game this season and are sitting on top of the league table with 13 points, coupled with the fact that they will be playing in front of home fans.
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City lost their first game of the season – a 1-0 defeat to Tottenham – and played a drab goalless draw with Southampton in their last match, leaving them in 5th position on the league table.
Chelsea and Manchester City Last Meeting
Chelsea and Manchester City met three times in the final weeks of the 2020/21 season in three different competitions.
The Blues won all three matches – first in the FA Cup Semi-Final at Wembley, then a Premier League win at the Etihad before edging the Champions League final 1-0 at the Estádio do Dragão in Portugal where Kai Havertz scored the only goal of the game on 42 minutes.
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Chelsea and Manchester City Team news
City: Pep Guardiola has a couple of injury worries ahead of the game. Defenders Aymeric Laporte and John Stones were both injured on international duty and are unlikely to feature against Chelsea.
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Oleksandr Zinchenko is another doubt, while Ilkay Gundogan will be assessed before match day.
Chelsea: Tuchel could also be nursing some headaches due to injury of his players ahead of the tough clash.
Edouard Mendy has not featured since he picked up a knock in the game against Zenit St Petersburg, N’Golo Kante has been inconsistent for a while due to injury, and Timo Werner is nursing a calf injury.
Chelsea vs Manchester City Venue VS kick off
The game will be played at the Stamford Bridge stadium. Kick off is set for 12:30pm
Referee
Michael Oliver (England) will officiate the game.
Assistants: Stuart Burt, Simon Bennett
Fourth official: Andy Madley
VAR: Darren England
Assistant VAR: Dan Robathan
CHELSEA VS MANCHESTER CITY LIVE MARCH
Chelsea EPL Unbeaten Record Ends Today
Chelsea’s unbeaten start to the Premier League season was brought to an end as Manchester City moved level on points with the Blues thanks to a 1-0 win at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
It was also a revenge for their Champions League final loss to the blues.
Gabriel Jesus’ deflected effort eight minutes into the second-half separated the sides, but City should have been more convincing winners as they laid down a marker after losing to Chelsea three times towards the end of last season.
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The most painful of those came in Porto as Chelsea lifted the Champions League to deny City the crowning glory of the club’s rise since an Abu Dhabi takeover in 2008.
Pep Guardiola was fiercely criticised for his decision to start without a natural holding midfielder when the sides last met in May.
That error was rectified with the return of Rodri and the Spaniard’s poise helped Guardiola’s men completely dominate possesion.
However, City’s lack of a prolific goalscorer to turn that dominance into goals was again exposed.
Guardiola bemoaned on Friday that his side lack a “weapon” of the likes of Chelsea’s record signing Romelu Lukaku or Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo to decide games inside the box.
Instead, City have to rely on the collective of a richly assembled squad of creative midfielders as Guardiola named Kevin De Bruyne, Phil Foden, Jack Grealish and Bernardo Silva in his starting line-up.
For all of City’s patient probing, it was when they took a pot shot from long-range that they looked most likely to break the deadlock before the break.
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Rodri’s piledriver would have tested Edouard Mendy but for a deflection that took it over before De Bruyne also fired over when the Belgian found a rare pocket of space.
Rather than stepping into the shoes of the departed Sergio Aguero, Jesus has found himself deployed as a right winger so far this season.
The Brazilian should have done better with City’s best chance of the first-half when he sliced well wide after controlling Silva’s cross to the far post.
However, Jesus got the break City’s performance deserved to open the scoring on 53 minutes as his effort deflected off Jorginho to leave Mendy flat-footed.
That was just the 15th Premier League goal Chelsea had conceded in 25 games since Tuchel took charge.
But there could have been plenty more but for a combination of wasteful finishing and some brilliant last-ditch defending.
City’s £100 million summer splash on Grealish rather than a goalscorer has been questioned, but the England international came to life after the break.
And only a stunning save by Mendy low to his left prevented the visitors quickly doubling their lead.
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Jesus’ lack of a killer instinct was again exposed when he appeared to have an open goal after another dangerous Grealish burst, but his low finish allowed international teammate Thiago Silva to clear off the line.
Tuchel’s response was to send on Kai Havertz, the hero of Porto with the only goal, but the German was well offside when he teed up Lukaku for a tap in.
Chances continued to come and go the other end as Grealish was denied again by Mendy when clean through.
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But the Premier League champions’ profligacy was not punished and United’s shock 1-0 home defeat to Aston Villa capped a stunning Saturday for City.
Guardiola’s side move level on 13 points with Chelsea, United and leaders Liverpool, who face Brentford later.