On Sunday, the former Premier League champions play host to the newly crowned kings of England. Jose Mourinho’s men didn’t get off to a perfect start in the league as Garry Monk’s Swansea City held them 2 – 2 at the Stamford Bridge.
Manchester City, on the other hand, played flawlessly for the entire ninety minutes against Tony Pulis’s West Brom. Manuel Pellegrini was expected to be sacked following a series of losses and draws in the second half of the last season. But the Chilean manager is still at the helm of the club and will allegedly be replaced by Pep Guardiola next year. Pellegrini has brought in Raheem Sterling and Fabian Delph and is quite adamant to sign former Chelsea player Kevin de Bryune. The transfer window will be closed on September 1 and we can certainly expect some movement at the club. Nickolas Ottamendi and Barcelona’s Pedro are also believed to be on City’s radar and only time will tell that on which side of Manchester they’ll land in.
Chelsea are more or less comfortable with the transfer business they’ve done so far and it seems unlikely that the Blues will do some major changes to the side. Radamel Falcao hasn’t looked anywhere near impressive as his heydays at Porto and Atletico Madrid. The Colombian skipper flopped at Manchester United last season and following his performances in pre-season friendlies with Chelsea, one’s only conjecture would be his imminent failure in London. If Diego Costa, yet again, struggles with injuries this season and Loic Remy fails to deliver, the Blues can have a big goal scoring problem ahead of them.
Looking at their last three league meetings, City are marginally ahead of their title rivals. Both the Premier League clashes last season ended in 1 – 1 draw while the FA Cup fixture in February 2014 ended 2 – 0 in favour of the Citizens. Either of the sides will lose points at the weekend, but Chelsea losing will already put them five points behind City. Chelsea’s Portuguese boss will be hoping to play safe and satisfy himself with one more point. Pellegrini might go for a win but a point in the bag won’t be a big disappointment against arguably the best team in the country.
Yaya Toure looked sharp in City’s opening fixture of the league as he assisted one and scored one. The Ivory Coast international had a great 2013/14 campaign but he couldn’t replicate similar performances in the 2014/15 season. Toure has started well and he’d definitely be a big asset to the club if he keeps similar form until the end of this season. David Silva was unsurprisingly outstanding against the Hawthorns. The Spaniard is one of the best players in the Premier League and on his day he can be a big threat to any great club side in the world. Last but certainly not the least, Sergio Aguero looked lethal in the first match, although he didn’t get on the score sheet after coming off the bench.
Asmir Begovic will get his Premier League debut for Chelsea on Sunday as Thirbaut Courtois remains suspended following the red card against Swansea last weekend.
Raheem Sterling came close to getting his first goal for City last week but if he manages to make an impact against Chelsea, he’d get on the good side of City faithful as early as now.