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Manchester City v CHELSEA: Preview

Date: Saturday 3rd December, 2016
Venue: Etihad Stadium
Kick-off: 12:30 GMT

Last week against Spurs we conceded our first goal in over 600 minutes and there were tears and tantrums in abundance. It’s true we didn’t have a great first half but the cries of us ‘being found out’ and Conte’s formation (which had served us well for the six wins before last week) ‘not working anymore’, were drowned out when Pedro served up a reminder of what else we’d got in our locker. By full time, as is usually the case in that particular fixture, we’d taken another 3 points and the nappies were well and truly wrung out.
In today’s early game it’s Manchester City away, so we can expect another tough one. Guardiola will undoubtedly have done his homework, and like Spurs last week, City will set themselves up to put a stop to our run. The unfortunate statistic for us, given our 7 straight wins, is that our last 8 game winning streak was ended by a 1-0 defeat away to Manchester City.

MANAGER’S VIEWS
Going into today’s game, Man City manager Pep Guardiola says “We are going to play against the best team right now in the Premier League for the last five or six weeks. They play amazing, just clean sheets. The way they play, we are going to try to discover his secret what we can do to beat them.”
Chelsea boss Antonio Conte meanwhile, says Conte said: “Now we are a different team to two months ago. It would have been very difficult to win the Tottenham game if we were the same team as two months ago. I love the mentality of my players, I saw a great attitude and great commitment from all of them. I see the will to change something.” Whilst on today’s game, Conte says “This is a great test for us, for our formation, to continue this way. We know that it won’t be easy because we face a really great team, with really great players and a good idea of football. But we want to show we are working very well and are growing. This is another step to show us if something has changed since the start of the season.”

SQUAD NEWS
For City, Kevin de Bruyne, John Stones, David Silva and Ilkay Gundogan could earn recalls to the starting line-up, although City Kevin de Bruyne, John Stones, David Silva and Ilkay Gundogan could earn recalls to the starting line-up.
For Chelsea, John Terry remains out injured while Mikel John Obi’s muscular problem will be assessed.

TEAMS
MAN CITY (Possible line-up): Bravo; Stones, Fernandinho, Otamendi; Sagna, Gundogan, Fernando, Kolarov; Silva, De Bruyne; Aguero
CHELSEA (Possible line-up): Courtois; Azpilicueta, Luiz, Cahill; Moses, Kante, Matic, Alonso; Hazard; Pedro, Costa,

LAST SEASON
Man City 3-0 Chelsea (16th August 2016)

CURRENT FORM
MAN CITY: WWDWD
CHELSEA: WWWWW

OTHER STUFF
~ Chelsea have lost six of their last eight games away to Man City in league and cup
~ City won both Premier League meetings last season 3-0.
~ Chelsea have won 11 games away at Man City in the Premier League
~ City have lost one of their last 15 league games
~ City have kept just two clean sheets in their last 16 league games.
~ A win would see Chelsea win eight consecutive Premier League games for the first time since 2010
~ This is Chelsea’s best winning streak in a single season since nine straight wins in 2006-07.

PREDICTION
BBC Sport: Man City 1-1 Chelsea
Sky Sports: Man City 2-2 Chelsea
Soccerlens: Man City 1-2 Chelsea

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