Prediction: Manchester City vs Chelsea

20th March 2012

If this game was played few weeks ago, Manchester City would be regarded as hot favourites for the win, but the events that happened over the last two weeks suggest that Chelsea can get something from this game. The Blues are now on a four-match winning run and are hoping to pour more misery on Roberto Mancini’s side.

Manchester City’s impressive performances at the start to the season hinted that the Citizens would be fighting for major trophies this term, but things haven’t gone as planned and Roberto Mancini’s side are in danger of finishing the season without winning a single trophy. The FA Cup and Carling Cup exits were not seen as major disappointments seeing that City were leading the race in English Premier League and playing great football in Europa League, but now is the time to start talking about broken promises. Manchester City slipped from the Premiership summit as they were beaten by high-flying Swansea, whereas the team dropped out of the Europa League in spite of the 3-2 victory over Sporting Lisbon in the return leg. Things are slowly spiraling out of control and such is the gravity of the situation that Roberto Mancini was forced to swallow his pride and welcome back Carlos Tevez to the side. The Argentine is in contention for the Chelsea game, even if he is unlikely to start, but Joleon Lescott is out and Vincent Kompany is very doubtful. The good news is that Gareth Barry and Pablo Zabaleta are back to the side.

Unlike Manchester City, Chelsea have been struggling for form from the very start of the league campaign, and they looked to be in for a very disappointing season. Not even the most optimistic fans believed that team’s showings will improve considerably after Andre Villas-Boas was sacked from the post, but the Blues enjoyed a genuine revival under caretaker manager Roberto Di Mateo and are now in a position to even exceed expectations from the start of the season. Comfortable victories over Birmingham and Leicester City saw Chelsea qualify for the FA Cup semi-finals, whereas they produced a real coup by overturning a two-goal deficit to beat Napoli and reach Champions League quarter-finals. With Fernando Torres breaking his goalscoring drought with a brace against Leicester and Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard rediscovering their form, Roberto Di Matteo is now spoilt for choices in midfield and attack, whereas his players are brimming with confidence before the trip to Etihad. John Terry and Ramires are set to return to the side, while David Luiz is expected to replace Gary Cahill in the starting line-up.

Conclusion

While Manchester City are going through a very rough patch and are under big pressure to close the gap behind Manchester United, Chelsea are high on confidence following several impressive showings and they look more than capable of getting something from this match.

Verdict: Double chance on Chelsea

Best Odds: 10/11

Bookmaker: Sportingbet