The last victory is in 2021.
About Chelsea’s business
– At the very least, the “aristocrats” are moving up the rankings and have finally started earning points. The team have lost just one league match in their last five, taking points from Arsenal and beating Tottenham.
– The match against Spurs was potentially the most brilliant match of the season. The 90 minutes saw two Spurs expulsions, many close calls, a goal for the Azzurri in the first half and 3 in the second. At the same time, Chelsea managed to bring the situation to defeat only in injury time. From a playing perspective, Tottenham looked objectively confident. Even with nine Ange Postecoglou players, they built a compact defense and dispersed counterattacks effectively. Before conceding the third goal, Spurs themselves experienced an amazing moment: Heung-Min Son failed to score.
– With excellent results there is another thing that is scary: at Chelsea there is no feeling of a structure that helps them achieve them. We also saw it in the last derby. The opponents had two players sent off, but even so the Blues struggled to create and convert scoring chances. The second ball was delivered with a squeak. And most importantly, with such a selection of players and serious expenses, the guests’ only weapon in such a situation turned out to be a throw, relying on the speed of the attacking group. Each of Nicholas Jackson’s three goals is similar to each other: after Tottenham’s defense fails, the attack accelerates into motion, the Senegalese in the front line receives the ball and shoots without serious resistance.
– In any case, there is a result. Mauricio Pochettino’s men are not losing their position on the edge of the top ten and are already raising their heads. The closest target is Manchester United. Mancunians also flock to the event, but they hold on thanks to the limited calendar. The Blues will have a chance in December: there will be a face-to-face meeting. And then everything will depend on Chelsea’s progress. In its current form, the club is unable to impose competition on Villa and Newcastle, and even more so on Arsenal and Liverpool. Meanwhile, the gap from the Champions Cup zone is 7 points.
– An additional obstacle is a series of injuries. The most significant losses are Ben Chilwell (they extended their contract for a reason) and Wesley Fofana. Both are starters. The depth of the bench also suffers: without Chalobah, Broya and Chukwuemeka, the rotation space is significantly reduced.
Chelsea’s formation (4-2-3-1): Sanchez – Cucurella, Colwill, Silva, James – Fernandez, Caicedo – Mudrik, Gallagher, Sterling – Jackson.
On Manchester City affairs
– Despite some unnecessary misfires and a defeat in an important match, the “citizens” have had a rather positive start to the season. A run of 8 consecutive victories before the start of the Champions League energized Guardiola’s gang. True, they were later eliminated from the League Cup by Newcastle and lost to Wolverhampton in the next match. October also did not start well – after a sure victory over Leipzig, the “blues” did not score points in the most important match of the opening period – against Arsenal. The Gunners scored 3 points and secured a head-to-head advantage. To take advantage, the teams must score the same number of points and, unlike the Londoners, City made no mistakes in their subsequent games. Defeats were inflicted on Brighton, United and Bournemouth. And given that recent league leaders Tottenham lost sensationally to Chelsea in the last round, it was fitting SM.
– Moreover, the “citizens” confidently passed the group stage of the Champions League. It’s not over yet, but Pep Guardiola’s team has already secured a place in the playoffs: in 4 rounds the team scored 12 points.
– When Holland was just starting to break out nuclear submarine, there were some concerns for City: the Norwegian could deprive the European giant of its usual charm and variability in ownership. And at the same time make the club dependent on him for completion. This last thing has not been observed so far: even without Erling the “citizens” are capable of crushing their opponents. A recent example is the match against Bournemouth. The Norwegian striker left the pitch at half-time. Already at that point the score was 3:0, Erling did not stand out with any effective actions. In the second half they scored the same number – and the main star was not the Scandinavian striker, but the young Belgian winger Jeremy Doku. He added a poker assist and a goal to his credit.
– The most important thing about Doku is that he can solve the city’s age-old left-back problem, but under certain conditions. Jeremy is primarily an offensive player, so leaving him on defense is ineffective. At the same time, the 3-4-2-1 opens up an ideal lateral position for the Belgian. His physical data allows him to cover the entire flank, plus he won’t have to compete with Foden, Alvarez and, after recovery, with De Bruyne.
Manchester City lineup (4-2-3-1): Ederson-Guardiol, Akanji, Dias, Walker-Rodri, Kovacic-Doku, Alvarez, Foden-Haaland.
About the fight
– Recently, the teams have been extremely intransigent in head-to-head matches: not a single draw in the previous 20 matches.
– It’s not just the number of victories that scares the “aristocrats”: they won against the “citizens” only 7 times in those 20 matches. The terrible indicators of goals scored are also scary – the last time they scored against City was in May 2021, and it was only 1 goal. Subsequently, Guardiola’s gang achieved 6 consecutive “dry” victories.
Soccer.ru predictions: City victory.
