Arsenal have officially requested that their match against Tottenham on Sunday be postponed due to the lack of available first-team players.
Arsenal have officially requested that their match against Tottenham on Sunday be postponed due to the lack of available first-team players.
A highly-anticipated top-of-the-table clash kicks off the Premier League action on Saturday, as Manchester City welcome closest challengers Chelsea to the Etihad Stadium for a lunchtime battle.
Pep Guardiola’s men currently sit 10 points clear of their upcoming opponents in the standings, with another defeat for the Blues seemingly rendering their title charge impossible.
Leaders Manchester City could again be without several players for the Premier League visit of Chelsea after suffering further cases of coronavirus this week.
Ederson, Raheem Sterling, Phil Foden, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Fernandinho, John Stones and Jack Grealish all missed last week’s FA Cup win at Swindon but the club have not confirmed exactly who has tested positive. They have also not said who the new cases are, nor who is now negative.
Riyad Mahrez is a definite absentee as he is away with Algeria at the Africa Cup of Nations.
Andreas Christensen will miss out for Chelsea after testing positive for Covid-19.
The Blues will hope Thiago Silva and N’Golo Kante can start, having returned to the bench for Wednesday’s Carabao Cup semi-final second leg at Tottenham after their own Covid isolation.
Trevoh Chalobah (hamstring), Ben Chilwell (knee) and Reece James (hamstring) are longer-term absentees, while Edouard Mendy is at the Africa Cup of Nations.
Chelsea won this exact fixture 2-1 last season, last winning consecutive away league games against Man City during a run of four between 2005 and 2008.
This will be the 50th Premier League meeting between Man City and Chelsea; City won just three of their first 25 against Chelsea (D4 L18) but have since won 12 of the last 24 (D3 L9).
This is just the second ever Premier League meeting between Manchester City and Chelsea as the top two sides in the division. The other came in January 2015, with second placed City earning a 1-1 draw at league leaders Chelsea.
Manchester City have won their last 11 Premier League games, their fifth such run of 11+ consecutive victories in the competition. Three of their previous four such runs have been ended in a home match - 1-2 vs West Ham in September 2015, 2-2 vs Spurs in August 2019 and 0-2 vs Man Utd in March 2021.
Chelsea have lost just one of their last 15 Premier League games (W8 D6), going down 3-2 at West Ham in December. However, the Blues have picked up just one win from their last five league games (D4), throwing away a lead in two of those four draws.
At the start of December, Chelsea were top of the Premier League.
Saturday’s game at the Etihad may be their last chance to stop City from running away with the title
Chelsea have stopped the opposition team from scoring in 16 of 22 first-halves in the Premier League so far this season.
Only bettered by Manchester City (20).
As expected, the hosts dominated possession in the first half, and they had the only big chance so far, but Kepa stopped Jack Grealish’s attempt with a fine save.
Chelsea did have some openings, but end the half with 0 shots taken.
0 - Chelsea failed to attempt a shot in the first half at the Etihad; the first time they’ve failed to do so in a Premier League game under Thomas Tuchel, and first time overall since May 2018 v Newcastle. Sheltered.
Romelu Lukaku had the fewest touches of any player in the first-half of Manchester City vs Chelsea (9).
Anonymous.
Kevin De Bruyne has already matched his goal tally from last season (6).
in 25 games (2020/21)
in 17 games (2021/22)
Yet another goal against Chelsea.