How to watch Chelsea vs Man City: Kick-off time, TV channel, live stream, highlights, team news and analysis
In ancient Rome, Thomas Tuchel would have been banished to the outer reaches of Empire to put manners on barbarians, or dispatched in the dead of night by the cold steel of the Praetorian Guard. Since Pep Guardiola, the Premier League’s very own Caesar, has neither mechanism available to him he must meet the pretender to the imperial throne on the battlefield.
Tuchel’s remarkable rebuild at Chelsea is notable not least for the three defeats he inflicted on Guardiola in the space of six weeks at the end of last term. In ascending order, Chelsea beat Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-final, the Premier League and the Champions League final.
The latter acquired greater significance when linked to the start to the season made by a Chelsea team enhanced by the return of Romelu Lukaku. The dispatch of Spurs last weekend after a classic Tuchel tactical change at half-time prompted delirious predictions from football’s rapid-reaction commentariat, many of whom declared Chelsea champions in September.
Five games is all it took to dismiss the claims of the present champions, plus the 2020 vintage Liverpool, despite the restoration of the totemic Virgil van Dijk, whose presence has restored the team to full vigour.
Chelsea vs Man City team news
Thomas Tuchel admitted that Edouard Mendy faces a “race against time” to be available to face Manchester City after missing Chelsea’s previous two matches with a knock. Tuchel said Wednesday’s game against Aston Villa came “too early” for Christian Pulisic as he recovers from an ankle injury, so he could have an outside chance of featuring this weekend.
Speaking before Manchester City’s win over Wycombe Wanderers, Pep Guardiola said that John Stones, Aymeric Laporte, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Rodri and Ilkay Gundogan are all injured. Guardiola will provide an update on his walking wounded on Friday afternoon.
Expected line-ups:
When added to the N’Golo Kante-inspired victory at Spurs, Chelsea’s 10-man shut-out in the second half at Anfield in August is re-calibrated as proof of Chelsea’s invincibility as well as Tuchel’s technical wizardry after his summary sacking by PSG nine months ago.
Let’s see how Tuchel copes with the upgrade. In each of his successes in the City trilogy, Tuchel was aided by Guardiola’s restless mind, an affliction which seems to condemn the Catalan to a state of frenzied churn, constantly weighing selection dilemmas.
Guardiola is rarely picking a team for the next match but in the context of what’s to come. His brain must be fried at the prospect of fixtures against PSG and Liverpool immediately after Stamford Bridge. With the Carabao Cup final and Champions League semi-finals looming in April Guardiola made eight changes in the FA Cup defeat to Chelsea, and nine for the Premier League loss a fortnight later.
In the Champions League final, he invited trouble by excluding a defensive midfielder. Tuchel must have been licking his chops when he saw Fernandinho and Rodri on the bench. Chelsea helped themselves to the lead through Kai Havertz and held on with obvious ease. Those defeats, plus the early declaration for Chelsea, could incentivise Guardiola or, equally, send him into the kind of tailspin that saw him flee Barcelona for an extended timeout.
The signs of disturbance are already there, picking a needless fight with fans, and then doubling down on his odd remark about attendance as if his job depended on it. Into this unusual setting strode Southampton to eke out a goalless draw. Thus in a matter of days did Guardiola drain the positivity out of the City camp. The headlines were writing themselves when Wycombe went ahead in the Carabao Cup at the Etihad. That City replied with six of their own did not entirely restore equilibrium.
Following that City will need to make a statement at Stamford Bridge, just as they did in the first week of January. Perhaps re-runs of that evisceration during the last days of Frank Lampard might help.
There was no sense during that 3-1 defeat that Chelsea would recover to beat City three times before the season’s end let alone Guardiola’s creation coming to a gorgeous peak.
Tuchel’s arrival transformed the dynamic. It is incumbent on Guardiola to respond. Save for the additions of Lukaku at Chelsea and Jack Grealish at City both squads are little altered. The impression seems to be that Lukaku is the game changer who will take Chelsea to the title.
Grealish, whilst self-evidently good, does not augment City in the same way since their need of him was not as great. Indeed you could argue the consequent displacement of Raheem Sterling and/or Bernardo Silva has disrupted the flow, even weakened the proposition.
Tuchel’s challenge is to cope with the volume turned up. Increased noise is neither conducive to preparation, rest or recuperation. In each case last season Tuchel met Guardiola without expectation. This time he is favourite to win. Same requirement, different demand.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3zCu8GE
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