Venue: Stamford Bridge

Date: Sunday, 15 March

Kick-off: 1330 GMT

Today’s early game sees the Premier League’s richest club visit Stamford Bridge to cast their eye over what Abramovich has got for his money. And whilst the Mancunians will be hoping for a better outcome than the 3-1 they got against ten men at Eastlands, personally, I’d settle for even half as good a scoreline as the 6-0 we managed in this fixture last season.

We go into this game off the back of the first game we’ve failed to win under Guus Hiddink, with us drawing 2-2 with Juventus midweek whilst City come to the Bridge looking for their first away win in the league since August.

On the squad front for us, Joe Cole (knee) and Paulo Ferreira (ligaments) remain out for the rest of the season. Nicolas Anelka is a doubt after taking a knock in training, although Ricardo Carvalho could start.

For City, Vincent Kompany (toe), Nigel de Jong (knee) and Craig Bellamy (knee) all miss out.

KEY PLAYERS

CHELSEA

Frank Lampard – The Chelsea midfielder has started every game for us this season and we’ll be hoping he can add to his 15 goals and 12 assists so far in today’s game.

MAN CITY

Robinho – His form has been poor away from Eastlands but with him and Wayne Bridge up against the suspect Bosingwa, the Brazilian could make us regret not getting his signature in the summer.

CLUB FORM

CHELSEA

Unbeaten in 8 in all competitions and we’ve won our last 3 in the league. At home, we’ve won four, drawn two and lost one of nine games. We’ve conceded one goal in four in the league, keeping four clean sheets in our last six top-flight games. In the games where we’ve scored the opener, we’ve won 15, drawn 1 and lost 1. We go into this game 3^rd in the table with 58 points – our lowest return at this stage for six years and three points less than this time last season.

MAN CITY

City have won one of their last four in the league although on the road, haven’t managed a win in 12 games with just 5 points from a last possible 36. In fact, the Manchester outfit haven’t won away from home since the end of August. City don’t go in for goalless draws, managing 35 games without one but then again, considering they’ve managed just one clean sheet on their top-flight travels this season, that probably explains it. And of the 12 games where they’ve conceded first this season, they’ve seen a return of precisely nothing. City go into this game 10^th in the table.

HEAD TO HEAD

Chelsea have won their last seven against City in the league and we go into this game looking for our fourth consecutive double over them and our eighth in total. In 21 games City’s only Premier League win over us came in October 2004 courtesy of a Nicolas Anelka penalty, whilst their only win at Stamford Bridge in the Premier League was our first meeting back in 1993. We’ve kept 15 clean sheets in 23 Premier League games against City and they haven’t taken as much as a point off us since February 2005. This season’s 3-1 win over City at Eastlands saw them score their first goal against us in eight games courtesy of Robinho.

Home and Away

League (inc PL): Chelsea 52 wins, Man City 39 wins, Draws 36

Prem: Chelsea 15 wins, Man City 2 wins, Draws 4

At Chelsea Only

League (inc PL): Chelsea 31 wins, Man City 12 wins, Draws 20

Prem: Chelsea 7 wins, Man City 1 win, Draws 3

LAST SEASON’S GAME

Chelsea 6-0 Manchester City

Chelsea scorers: Essien 16, Drogba 31, 56, Joe Cole 60, Kalou 75, Shevchenko 90

27 October 2007 – Ref: Mike Riley

THIS SEASON’S REVERSE

Manchester City 1-3 Chelsea

Man City scorer: Robinho 13

Chelsea scorers: Carvalho 16, Lampard 53, Anelka 69

Sent Off: John Terry 77

13 September 2008 – Ref: Mark Halsey

PREDICTION

Our home form as we know has been subjected to a bit more of a challenge this season than we’re used to although we’d have to hope that with City being so woeful on their travels, they won’t be increasing our total of points dropped at Stamford Bridge this term. Having said that, with us being the only club not to have faced a penalty in the league this season and our fragile defence up against the likes of Robinho and Shaun Wright-Phillips, I wouldn’t want to write City off totally.

TEAMS

CHELSEA (from): Cech, Hilario, Taylor, Bosingwa, A Cole, Carvalho, Alex, Ivanovic, Terry, Mancienne, Lampard, Ballack, Mikel, Belletti, Essien, Deco, Kalou, Quaresma, Malouda, Anelka, Drogba, Di Santo

MAN CITY (from): Given, Hart, Schmeichel, Richards, Onuoha, Dunne, Bridge, Garrido, Zabaleta, Wright-Phillips, Elano, Caicedo, Ireland, Fernandes, Vassell, Weiss, Robinho, Evans, Bojinov, Logan, Berti.

REFEREE

Mike Riley (Leeds)

Filed under: Match Day, Preview