Manchester City are set to entertain injury-riddled Chelsea for the second time in the space of four days, as the two Premier League giants look to unfurl a new chapter in their recent rivalry.
With the Etihad stadium playing host for this FA Cup third round tie, Pep Guardiola will prepare his team to lock horns with Chelsea for the third time in two months.
Having already defeated the Blues courtesy of a winner from Riyad Mahrez at Stamford Bridge in the Premier League, they’ll be riding high on confidence.
City lifted this famous trophy in 2018/19 under Guardiola. There’s no reason to believe they can’t challenge for silverware in all competitions again. The Cityzens have already secured a berth in the quarter-final of the EFL Cup, in a run that saw them send Chelsea packing in the third round. Guardiola and co. will be back on the hunt.
Graham Potter’s charges, on the other hand, displayed nerves of steel in a high-octane, tactically profound encounter a couple of days back. They held Manchester City until Guardiola’s super subs Jack Grealish and Mahrez unlocked their defence.
The former Brighton boss blooded youngsters into the fold after the goal, and it’s fair to say Carney Chukwuemeka grabbed the opportunity better than anyone else, as he came closest to spectacularly giving Chelsea the lead but was denied by the frame of goal.
One would have to go back to May 2021 to note the last time Chelsea beat Manchester City away from home. It was a time when they could do no wrong, as they came back from behind to win 2-1 and delay City’s title celebrations. Later that month, they’d go on to beat the same opposition for the Champions League title under who else but Thomas Tuchel.
Potter’s start has been far from the one inspired by his predecessor. Thanks to the new regime’s long-term project, he’s got time on his hands but a divided fanbase to take control of.
There are plenty of excuses he can make, having been brought in mid-season, with a pool of players that weren’t signed by him, to a club that had undergone a historic takeover. But if there’s a time to earn the trust of the supporters, it’s now, against the champions of England.
Team News
Manchester City
Man City’s title-winning centre-half combination Aymeric Laporte and Ruben Dias are ruled out with back and hamstring injuries, respectively.
Guardiola is poised to bring wholesale changes to the starting XI that outmanoeuvred Chelsea at the Bridge. World Cup winner Julian Alvarez will be eyeing a start.
Chelsea
The Blues are just one player short of creating a line-up solely with injury-hit players. Raheem Sterling and Christian Pulisic’s outing against City last time out was brought to a premature end as they were both hauled off.
Mason Mount, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Ben Chilwell and Edouard Mendy are closest to returning. Reece James would be working his way through ahead of a comeback in about three weeks.
N’Golo Kante and Wesley Fofana remain long-term absentees.
Predicted XI
Manchester City probable line-up:
Ortega; Lewis, Stones, Ake, Gomez; Gundogan, Phillips, De Bruyne; Mahrez, Alvarez, Grealish
Chelsea probable line-up:
Kepa; Azpilicueta, Chalobah, Koulibaly, Hall; Zakaria, Jorginho, Chukwuemeka; Gallagher, Hutchinson, Aubameyang
Match Prediction
Chelsea’s injury list is moving proportionally with the fixture calendar. The busier it gets; the lesser options remain for the Blues front office. Manchester City have a wealth of options to rotate, and that, combined with a sharper, more penetrative attacking edge could be the unravelling for the Blues once again.
Yes, we back Man City to be third-time lucky.
Predicted score: Manchester City 3-0 Chelsea
-Akarshak Roy
Twitter: @RoyAkarshak
Photo: Ank Kumar. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.