Manchester City V Chelsea Betting – Saturday 5th December (ESPN)

 

Manchester City V Chelsea

 

Kick-off: Saturday 5^th December – 17:30 GMT

Venue: The City of Manchester Stadium

TV Coverage: ESPN

 

Two of the most consistent sides, for completely different reasons we must add, do battle in Manchester, in ESPN’s live encounter, as Chelsea, the leaders of the Premiership, take on the wannabe’s, Manchester City, at the City of Manchester stadium. In one corner we have Mark Hughes and Man City, a team which have drawn their last seven in the league – while in the other corner we have Carlo Ancelotti and Chelsea, a team which arrive in Manchester with five suscessive wins under their belts, two of which were over Arsenal & Manchester United. So who will win the battle of the riches?

 

 

 

Manchester City

 

League Position: 7th

Recent Form: DDDDD

 

With the vast amounts of cash Mark Hughes has spent over the summer, there has been news this week that the club have shelled out no less than £13 Million on agent wages alone. That’s a staggering tally and one that will alarm working folk all around the country. However, from a Man City fans perspective, all they will be worried about is whether all that cash was really worth it. So far, they’ll probably be caught in two minds after a bright start to the season has recently gone aria. The richest club in the land, taking over the mantle formerly held by Chelsea, did win their opening four fixtures, but their recent run of seven consecutive draws means City’s season has gone significantly off the boil since.

  

Many sides go through a lean spell, one where wins are hard to come by, but City are at least picking up points, albeit not the right amount in some cases. Their run of seven successive draws has consisted of some tough fixtures, Liverpool & Aston Villa two of the notable ones, but some were very winnable games, while others were games City should have been bankers in. Home games with Fulham (2-2), Burnley (3-3) and, more recently, Hull City (1-1), were all fixtures City should have taken all three points out of on paper. However, they failed to do so in any and what’s more alarming is that City actually had the lead in all three at some stage but failed to hold out in either.

  

If Man City are to challenge the leading pack then they must make their new stadium a fortress, especially when the bigger teams do come a calling. They’ve done that so far, with their only home encounter against one of the ‘Big Four’ being a 4-2 victory over Arsenal back in September. They were sensational that day but Arsenal, as Chelsea proved at the weekend, are still a long way off the level of Chelsea. City really will need to cut out the mistakes and concentration errors if they want to take a point from this fixture, let alone all three.

  

At The City of Manchester, City are unbeaten in the league this season, with a record of 3-3-0. However, those three draws have all come in succession and you’ll have to stretch back four home games for City’s last victory in Manchester, a 3-1 victory over relegation stricken West Ham. A big concern is City’s poor defensive record at home this season, with just Wolves failing to score in Manchester against City this season, a team who have struggled for goals all season. City’s last five home encounters has seen them fail to keep a clean sheet, with even the likes of Hull (1 goal) and Burnley (3 goals!) getting past a usually impenetrable Shay Given goal.

 

Scoring, however, hasn’t been a problem, with City managing a more than reasonable tally of 24 goals for the season thus far. 14 of those have come at home and Mark Hughes’ has spent big bucks on his forward line over the summer so the fact that City have scored in every home game this season does go some way to justifying the amount spent… sort of.

 

 

 

Chelsea

 

League Position: 1st

Recent Form: WWWWW

 

Chelsea are unstoppable at the moment and have brushed aside all those who have opposed them of late. Five wins of the spin has seen them not only regain their position at the very top of the league but also enforce a five point gap on the chasing pack. They’ve been playing the best football of late oyt of any side in the league, scoring goals for fun at times, whilst their defence has been in scintillating form. At this moment in time, Chelsea are a well oiled machine, but machines do run out of legs eventually, and after a long, gruelling Carling Cup game in midweek, will Chelsea have the legs to maintain their winning run at The City of Manchester stadium?

  

The blues’ have won five on the bounce, scoring 17 goals in the process. However, what’s more impressive is that Chelsea’s five match winning run has been built upon a strong defensive basis, with Chelsea failing to concede a single goal in this winning run, five consecutive clean sheets. Even Arsenal (0-3) and Manchester United (1-0), couldn’t breakthrough this solid and impenetrable Chelsea defence, but they should be tested to the full once again on Saturday against a City side who haven’t failed to score at home in six home outings this season. 

 

Chelsea’s away record stands at 5-2, which is mighty impressive, but their only two defeats of the season have both come on the road. Defeats at Aston Villa (2-1) and Wigan (3-1) are Carlo Ancelotti’s only league low points this season, but Chelsea have bounced back and in some fashion by winning their previous two away encounters; beating Bolton Wanderers 4-0, and Arsenal 3-0, the latter arguably Chelsea’s greatest result of the season thus far. The win over Arsenal is their most recent and Chelsea were sublime in that outing. They had to be patient as Arsenal spent most of the time on the ball, but Chelsea waited for the chances to arrive and when they did they took them with aplomb.

  

Didier Drogba scored a brace at The Emirates, taking his tally for the season, league wise, to 11 goals, level with Jermaine Defoe at the top. The Ivorian has been the player of the season by a country mile and he had led from the front, spearheading this Chelsea express. He has seven more league goals then anyone else in the Chelsea team and a fit and hungry Drogba is bad news for the City fans but a delight for the travelling Chelsea supporters.

  

Our only flaw with Chelsea this weekend is their midweek cup exit. Yes, the Carling Cup won’t be too high on their list of priorities this season, probably right at the very bottom, but Carlo Ancelotti will be eager to at least end the season with a trophy and the players will have been fully aware of this. The defeat on penalties(against Blackburn Rovers) made the situation a lot harder to take in and it will be interesting to see how the first teamer’s respond on Saturday.

 

 

 

 

Head-to-Head (Last 10):

 

Manchester City W: 1 Chelsea W: 8 Draws: 1

 

I don’t think I’ve seen such a domineering head-to-head record for some time, with Chelsea the team doing all the dominating. Not only have Chelsea won 8 of the last 10 meetings between the two but they’ve also won the last 8 clashes on the trot, a run stretching four seasons back, a four years winning streak over the new rich boys on the block.

 

Chelsea beat Man City 1-3 at The City of Manchester stadium last season but they’ve beaten City on their last four visits to Manchester, three of which have been to nil. City’s last home victory over the Blue’s came back in 2004 when they won 1-0 at Maine Road, the old Man City stadium.

 

 

 

 

Match Verdict:- Draw – 3.50 Boylesports

 

This was a hard decision to come to as Chelsea have been sensational of late. However, City, at home anyway, are a tough side to overcome, especially this season, not losing at The City of Manchester in six games, nine if you stretch back into last season. City’s defence is a concern, whereas Chelsea’s looks very solid, so perhaps goals could actually be few and far between in this encounter, despite all the attacking talent on display. The big encounters against the top four are where Mark Hughes and City will be judged on just how far they’ve come and, possibly, how much work still needs to be done. This is more a test for City than Chelsea but a draw would be a step in the right direction and that’s the outcome we favour the most.

 

 

 

Match Odds:

 

Manchester City – 4.50 Bet365

Draw – 3.50 Boylesports

Chelsea – 1.91 PaddyPower

 

 

 

SoccerBetting Value Tip: 1-1 Correct Score – 7.00 Bet365