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Manchester City face Chelsea in a crucial Premier League encounter at the Etihad Stadium today. City are now on second place in the Premier League table with 62 points from 26 matches.
League leaders Liverpool have 65 points from 26 matches, but City have a superior goal difference. The Blue side of Manchester will again also have a chance of reclaiming the top spot, should they beat Chelsea today.
Chelsea, on the other hand, have 50 points from 25 matches, and now trail fourth placed Manchester United by a point. However, they have a match in hand, and would like to get a point at least from today's match. They beat Huddersfield 5-0 in their last league match, but City are a different proposition altogether.
The Blues are the only team to do the double over Manchester City on 10 occasions, and they would fancy their chances again. The hosts will be knowing full well that no other team has caused more hiccups to them than Chelsea - as they have lost three of their previous five PL games against the Pensioners.
On that note, we would now take a look at the 3 factors which might influence the outcome of the much-awaited fixture.
#1 Chelsea’s big defenders coping with the movement of City’s nimble-footed forwards
Chelsea have some big defenders in their squad, as each of David Luiz, Antonio Rudiger and Marcos Alonso are well above six feet. On the other hand, City’s attacking players like Sergio Aguero, Gabriel Jesus, Raheem Sterling and David Silva are almost six inches shorter on an average, but this obvious difference in size might not bode well for Chelsea.
City’s players are well-known for their positional play and Aguero in particular has the knack of being in goal-scoring positions inside the penalty box in the blink of an eye. The same goes for David Silva and Gabriel Jesus.
City’s forwards are nimble-footed enough to cause problems to the Chelsea defenders, who might find it a bit difficult to anticipate their movements. Both Aguero and Jesus have the ability to get into the space between the opposition defenders. David Luiz, especially, is not a good enough tackler to stop Aguero inside the box.
The diminutive Argentine striker has scored 19 goals for City this season, and would like to increase his tally on Sunday. Jesus also scored against Everton last Wednesday, and would like to reiterate his importance in the team by scoring against Chelsea (as a substitute, per say). Therefore, the Chelsea defenders would have their task cut out against the agile City forwards.
#2 The battle in midfield
Pep Guardiola surprised the football world by playing a 3-6-1 formation against Arsenal. Defensive midfielder Fernandinho played as a pseudo center back and fit into a 4-5-1 at times, as Aymeric Laporte and Kyle Walker stretched themselves wide to the flanks.
Guardiola might opt to adopt the same formation against Chelsea in order to ensure supremacy in midfield. The said formation allowed City to play midfielders Ilkay Gundogan, David Silva, Bernardo Silva, Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne at the same time, and thereby dictate terms in the midfield.
City kept playing numerous passes in the midfield in order to ensure that Arsenal did not see much of the ball in the second half. They would like to repeat the act against Chelsea as well.
Chelsea usually play a 4-3-3 formation with Eden Hazard, Gonzalo Huguain and Willian as their front three, but it would be judicious on their part to push Hazard and Willian back to the midfield and have Higuain as the lone front man in order to match City's midfield numbers.
N’Golo Kante, Matteo Kovacic and Jorginho should find it extremely difficult to battle it out against City’s wonderful midfield, and would need the support of Hazard and Willian (or Pedro) frequently.
Hazard in particular would have to curb his attacking instincts somewhat to involve himself I the midfield battle.
#3 City’s vulnerability while defending set-pieces
City conceded a goal from the corner kick against Arsenal, and have let in the highest number of goals from the set-pieces among the big teams. Aymeric Laporte, Nicholas Otamendi and Kyle Walker are all big and strong, and also good in the air, but the defensive work of the City midfielders and forwards in the set-pieces leave much to be desired.
Raheem Sterling failed to mark Koscielny properly during the corner that led to Arsenal’s goal last Sunday. It has to be noted in this regard that Sterling is a good six inches shorter than Koscielny, and is not very strong in the air either. Chelsea must have noted those frailties on City’s part, and should plan accordingly.
Chelsea have a tall striker in Higuain, and some very good headers in the shape of Luiz and Rudiger. Therefore, they might fancy their chances of scoring from a free-kick or corner. It has to be remembered that Luiz did score with a header against City in their 2-0 win at Stamford Bridge in December.
Guardiola might give special instructions to his players for marking the Chelsea players with the strongest headers in the set-pieces. The last thing he would want team to do is to concede a soft goal and lose vital points in a home match.
