Chelsea vs Manchester City

Stamford Bridge forms the backdrop for a mouth-watering Premier League showdown between Chelsea and Manchester City.

Confidence is at an all-time high around Mauricio Pochettino’s camp after Chelsea followed up a 2-0 League Cup win over second-tier Blackburn with a scintillating 4-1 romping of Tottenham in the Premier League. While things seem to be moving in the right direction, the ‘Blues’ cannot afford to get complacent, especially considering they’re winless in their last four league outings at Stamford Bridge (D1, L3). Those three defeats all came ‘to nil,’ highlighting the significance of staying tight and compact at the back. Indeed, the ‘Pensioners’ have lost all six competitive meetings with Man City without scoring since beating them in the 2020/21 Champions League grand final. Their four encounters in the Premier League in that sequence yielded the same 1-0 scoreline in City’s favor, underscoring the potential for a low-scoring contest.

Against this backdrop, visiting Manchester City have been anything but low-scoring. Pep Guardiola’s high-flyers took advantage of their title rivals’ slip-ups last weekend to ascend to the Premier League throne with an overwhelming 6-1 home win over bottom-half Bournemouth before hammering Young Boys 3-0 in midweek Champions League action to confirm progression into the knockout stages. But the ‘Citizens’ would be wise not to underestimate this encounter as they’ve blown hot and cold across their last six competitive travels (W3, L3). Interestingly, while their three wins in that period all came via multi-goal margins, each defeat saw Man City go down to a single goal. Guardiola’s evenly-balanced record in his last six away matches against Pochettino-managed clubs (W3, L3) is another warning sign.