4 min: Suddenly City burst into life. Fernandinho rolls a pass down the inside-right channel from deep. Aguero picks it up and flicks it on to De Bruyne, who enters the box from the right and whistles a low shot across Kepa and inches wide of the left-hand post. That was a rapier thrust, and very nearly the opening goal.
2 min: Chelsea win a throw deep in City territory. Within 15 seconds or so, the ball’s back at Kepa’s feet. Everyone carefully feeling each other out at the minute. It’s a big game. Nobody do anything rash!
Chelsea get the ball rolling. A massive roar. The ball’s hoicked upfield and then it’s City’s turn to get an early touch. No fast start.
Any road, the teams are out. There’s the usual pre-match air of anticipation … but a little bit of apprehension too. Both teams will be desperate for a win; anything else will seriously compromise their pursuit of Liverpool and Leicester City. We’ll be off once everyone stops crooning Blue Moon.
Seems you lot are expecting an evening of freewheeling entertainment. “Chelsea is probably the last team that City would prefer to see at this time,” argues Mary Waltz. “City has to win. Lose this fixture and their hopes for a title are crushed. Chelsea form has been wonderful and even though on paper they should lose they may be too young and too talented to realise they are in over their heads. Should be fun.”
Meanwhile Hubert O’Hearn adds: “This is a truly exciting match. Besides all the wonderful young talent Chelsea are bedding in – and City is vulnerable to speed which Chelsea has plenty of – what fascinates me is just how good a manager Frank Lampard is proving to be. In any major team sport, the rarest thing to find is a truly great player who becomes a truly great head coach/manager. Good for Lampard. Lampard always struck me as a solid, good sportsman and he’s assembling a memorable team. Let’s call this one an exhilarating 3-3 draw.”
Well that’s fate tempted in the grand tradition. If it’s 0-0 after 75 minutes, remind me to come back and delete this entry.
Pep, in one of his more abrupt moods, didn’t have too much to say in his pre-match chat with Sky Sports. He praised Chelsea’s “spirit … they’re free in their heads, they play good. Individually the quality of the players they have is a top-class team.” He also insisted that swapping out both full-backs is not a reaction to defeat against Liverpool, and responded positively to a question regarding his team’s likelihood of bouncing back from that loss in impressive style. “Yes.”
Frank Lampard’s pre-match statement of intent: “To come to Manchester City and declare I’m going to dominate with the ball would be a bit brave. But we have to be confident we can play. We’ve been confident on the ball recently, creating chances, so we have to come with that idea. But we’ve also got to understand we’re coming up against a team that’s been doing this for a few seasons to a really high standard. Both elements of our game, on and off the ball, will have to be spot on to get a result.”
There’ll be a blue moon over Manchester this evening whatever happens at the Etihad. City will of course be playing in their famous sky blue. But their shirts are a different enough hue for visitors Chelsea to get away with their own royal version.
You could shift this lot for a few quid on eBay. Photograph: Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images
The stakes have just got that little bit higher. The leaders Liverpool have won 2-1 at Crystal Palace, while second-placed Leicester City are 2-0 winners at Brighton & Hove Albion. As things now stand, Liverpool are on 37 points, 11 clear of Chelsea and 12 clear of City. Leicester meanwhile are certain to stay in second place tonight, on 29 points, unless Chelsea win 14-0 that is. So good luck with that. Barry Glendenning has all the details of the 3pm kick-offs.
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Manchester City make five changes to the team sent out at Anfield a fortnight ago. Ederson, Joao Cancelo, Benjamin Mendy and Riyad Mahrez replace Claudio Bravo, Kyle Walker, Angelino and Ilkay Gundogan, who all drop to the bench. David Silva is in for his suspended namesake Bernardo.
Chelsea make a couple of changes to the side that saw off Crystal Palace two weeks back. Mason Mount and Reece James are replaced by Jorginho and captain Cesar Azpilicueta.
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The teams
Manchester City: Ederson, Joao Cancelo, Stones, Fernandinho, Mendy, De Bruyne, Rodri, Silva, Mahrez, Aguero, Sterling.
Subs: Bravo, Walker, Gundogan, Gabriel Jesus, Jose Angelino, Otamendi, Foden.
Chelsea: Arrizabalaga, Azpilicueta, Zouma, Tomori, Emerson Palmieri, Kante, Jorginho, Kovacic, Willian, Abraham, Pulisic.
Subs: Christensen, Pedro, Caballero, Giroud, Mount, Batshuayi, James.
Referee: Martin Atkinson (W Yorkshire).
Preamble
There’s a little bit of pressure building on Manchester City. The back-to-back Premier League champions, last season’s imperious treble winners, are currently only fourth in the table. Right now, they sit nine points off the blistering pace set by Liverpool … and a point behind both Leicester City and Chelsea. This picture could improve or get even worse by the time the 3pm kick-offs are done and dusted – more on those anon – but this is where City are at the moment. They haven’t been here for a while.
How they’ll respond to that defeat at Anfield before the international break will be fascinating. The last time they lost on the road, at Norwich in September, they won their next Premier League match 8-0.
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That thrashing of Watford may give today’s visitors to the Etihad pause for thought. Because Chelsea – for it is they – shipped six goals in this fixture last season. Uh-oh.
Chelsea are a different proposition this time round, mind you. Frank Lampard has got his fledglings freewheeling all over the shop, and they’ve won their last six Premier League games. The defence might not be totally dependable yet, but who cares when the attackers are having so much fun? The Blues have their tails up – and they’ll also take heart from their impressive win over City at Stamford Bridge nearly a year ago.
City will be desperate to keep on Liverpool’s shoulder, and keep their dreams of a hat-trick of league titles alive. But Chelsea will have designs on the title race themselves, and any sort of positive result here would signal that they’re not intending to go away. This match could potentially affect the story of the entire season. So will City reassert their authority? Or will Chelsea’s unexpected challenge get that little bit more serious? It’s going to be a blast finding out … and it’s on!
Kick-off: 5.30pm GMT.