MAN CITY v Chelsea – The PREVIEW: City’s Probable Team
2 Feb
Sergio Aguero’s injury will force Manuel Pellegrini into making at least one change to the team which so impressively brushed aside Tottenham during the week. Edin Dzeko’s finishing was wayward in London but his overall contribution was excellent and he should be partnered by Alvaro Negredo, the Spaniard now having fully recovered from a slight shoulder problem.
Gael Clichy and Aleks Kolarov face a battle for a place on the left of defence, whilst, with Jose Mourinho expected to send out a defensive-minded unit, Martin Demichelis’s composure in possession and ability to bring the ball out from the back should see him get the nod alongside Vincent Kompany.
Here is the side Pellegrini could select:
Referee: Mike Dean.
Prediction: MAN CITY 2 – 1 Chelsea – The visitors will arrive in the hope of a point and although they have the considerable threat of Eden Hazard in fine form, I’d expect them to sit deep, soak up pressure and try to counter-attack. The onus will be on City to break them down and although it may be tighter than many games at the Etihad this season, I’m still backing another victory with goals to be scored by Alvaro Negredo, Yaya Touré and Eden Hazard.
Positive Cliché will play after great performance against Spurs. He defends better Kolorov and with Navas will make the team mega pacey.
hope we’re lucky!
Tough call at left back, if Chelsea play defensive then Kolarov’s ability going forward could be a match winning asset, however, Chelsea have pace in attack and are dangerous down the flanks so based on that you would say Clichy. I’m 50/50 on that one but either way I think we may win fairly comfortably again
A big call that.
The part of me that says with our home form and our attacking principles we should play our game, makes me inclined to go for AK, perhaps the most improved player in the squad this season and the one who has contributed hugely to the variety of the attacking options compared to last season.
On the other hand Sibneft will break fast and hard and, although VfaB makes a strong case for the steady Demichelis, who brings the ball out comfortably, the guy is not best suited to the high defensive line against the likes of Hazard, Oscar and Willian.
I would go for Nastasic and AK but expect Pellegrini to go for Demichelis and Clichy.
So it will probably be Demichelis and Clichy then
A draw would not be a disaster but if we hit our straps fast and score early we could roll them over. I do hope so; Financial Fair Play – Chelsea – just how cynical can they get?
On this subject I strongly recommend the excellent Martin Samuel on the subject in today’s Daily Mail and Farage Times. You can find it through Newsnow or the Mail On-Line.
I’ll go for 4-1 – I’m a blind optimist
Alph
I just think Clichy looked like the player he was 2 seasons ago against Spurs.
Samuel’s article was great. Nobody should forget the amount of money City’s owners plough into the British economy.
I can see why the press and public in Germany and Italy were so busy in moving JM on. He’s becoming predictable in his Pre-match rants, and his style of football is like watching paint dry.
City are now the club everybody feared they would be when the new owners came in. This internal rant of discomfort will go global if city beat barcalona
Sure Clichy was absolutely great against Tottenham , BUT!
Against Chelsea we is having his worst games. Something like Evra against Tottenham in a smaller degree. I would vote for Kolarov then since I can’t play myself
the hypocritical greasy 1 has done our team talk for us.hopefully the boys will ram his taunts down his throat
This is a game we must not lose !!!!
Will we have a better chance of that with an all out attack or do we play the extra midfielder etc etc ??
My team :-
HART-ZABALETA-KOMPS-DeMICHELIS-CLICHY
DINHO TOURE
NAVAS-SILVA-NEGREDO
DZEKO
All out attack for me 1-0 (Toure)
Rumours circulating that Fernandinho was injured in training…