Chelsea will host Premier League leaders Manchester City at Stamford Bridge on Sunday hoping to hand Pep Guardiola his first loss of the season in England’s top flight.
Chelsea comes into the fixture against Manchester City after a rather humiliating 2-1 defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers. The Blues are currently ten point’s behind Manchester City City before kick-off and Eden Hazard’s form is a huge concern. The Belgian International has gone 11 games without a goal and has looked pretty ordinary in his last few outings for Maurizio Sarri.
The Sarri Ball seems to have lost its touch a bit and Sarri’s tentative tactics against this steamrolling City side is asking for trouble. The few times that City was caught cold last season was during their away visits to highly exuberant stadiums like Anfield where Liverpool also managed to squeeze and press City very high, something Sarri’s men do time to time.
Although it seems like the game is hanging in balance on paper, City holds the advantage in terms of morale and confidence. Everything is going so well for them but the narrow 2-point gap against Liverpool will be added burden. Former Blue Kevin De Bruyne scored a scorcher and the only goal of the game the last time these two sides met at West London to hand the traveling team all three points.
Injury News-
English midfielder Ross Barkley will miss the crunch clash against City with an ankle injury while Victor Moses is also a doubt with a back injury.
Predicted Line-up
Sarri will likely go with his orthodox 4-3-3 formation, deploying Rudiger and Luiz as center-backs while Alonso and Azpilicueta should control the flanks. Eden Hazard’s preferred forward option is Olivier Giroud and the Frenchman might start ahead of Alvaro Morata who is still struggling in England. Willian should continue on the right flank and no changes are expected in the midfield trio that started against Spurs.
Lineup – Kepa Arrizabalaga; Cesar Azpilicueta, David Luiz, Marcus Alonso; Jorginho, N’golo Kante, Matteo Kovacic; Eden Hazard, Olivier Giroud, Willian.
