Manchester City vs. Chelsea – Betting Tips and Premier League Preview

After dealing with Arsenal not too long ago, now Manchester City face another big team from London – this time it’s Chelsea. This is the most anticipated game this week and it could have huge implications for the final positions of these two teams. City are currently first, but they have a game in hand after winning against Everton in midweek. Chelsea are sitting at fourth, but that place is by no means secured with Manchester United being just two points behind. The Blues managed to recover from a shocking 4:0 loss against Bournemouth by beating Huddersfield at home 5:0. Still, their form has been up and down recently and they need to achieve consistency in their results to finish in the top four at the end of the season. New signing Gonzalo Hugain opened his scoring account for Chelsea and is keen to continue his form against the current champions.

Team News

City once again has to deal with the absence of their second goalkeeper Claudio Bravo, but fortunately for them, Ederson is fit for this match. Their captain Vincent Kompany has also been out for a long time and will miss the match. Mendy’s injury remains a mistery after he featured in the cup game but wasn’t in the squad for the matches against Arsenal and Everton. Guardiola will be hopeful that the French full-back will at least make it to the bench. Kevin de Bruyne and Raheem Sterling were rested during the midweek game and will probably replace Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan in the starting line-up.

Chelsea have no injury problems at the moment, with the exception of Marco van Ginkel who has been injured for quite a while. Antonio Rudiger missed the win against Huddersfield but is back in contention for the trip to Etihad Stadium.

Prediction

Both teams will fight hard for the three points and the game could go either way. Chelsea showed once that they could beat Manchester City, but this time the game is at The Etihad where City have lost only once this season. One thing both teams have in common is their attacking philosophy. However, Chelsea showed that they could be vulnerable in defense after losing 4:0 to Bournemouth. City have scored two or more goals in their previous 14 home fixtures, and there were more than 2.5 goals in their last 9 home matches. Chelsea showed last week that they can score a lot of goals when their striker is in form, so the most likely outcome here looks to be both teams to score.