Chelsea suffered a shock home defeat at the hands of Crystal Palace on the weekend and will be aiming to get back to winning ways in the Wednesday night Premier League match against Manchester City.
The 2-1 loss at home to the Eagles was the shock result of the weekend in the Premier League but may be the wake-up call Antonio Conte and his players required. Almost everyone involved in football had awarded Chelsea the Premier League title going into the international break and the defeat to Palace has opened the door slightly for Tottenham Hotspur.
As for Manchester City and their title ambitions, even a win in this game would still leave them needing Chelsea to drop more points in the closing stages of the season, to have any chance of winning the league. However, an 8-point gap has been overturned in the past, so Pep Guardiola must believe his team can get back in it with a win at Stamford Bridge.
Trends show the defeat to Crystal Palace was only the fourth-time Chelsea have lost at home in thirty-three matches in all competitions. In addition, Chelsea had won ten Premier League games in a row prior to the 2-1 loss, which makes one think this more of a one off, than the start of a losing run at Stamford Bridge.
Manchester City have lost only one of their last fourteen matches in all competitions and the defeat came at Monaco in the Champions League. In the Premier League, trends show Manchester City are undefeated in their last eight games but victories have been hard to come by in recent weeks. Guardiola’s team have drawn their last three games and this is something the Spaniard will want to change.
In terms of team news for the game, Chelsea are waiting on the fitness of Victor Moses, who missed out on the weekend with a calf injury. The midfield performance on Saturday was poor and with N’Golo Kante unlikely to be dropped, Nemanja Matic could find himself left on the bench for this one.
Ilkay Gundogan and Gabriel Jesus remain unavailable for Manchester City and Bacary Sagna remains a doubt. It’s always difficult to predict what Guardiola is going to do in terms of both team selection and formation. However, with a short turnaround from the weekend, he may opt to keep things the same from the 2-2 draw at Arsenal.
Despite the defeat at the weekend, the title is still Chelsea’s to lose. However, a defeat in this match would add to the pressure and questions will start being asked about Chelsea’s ability to get over the line. With Tottenham playing at Swansea, who are struggling, the gap could be reduced to 4 points at the end of Wednesday’s fixtures.
Interestingly, there have been four red cards in the last five league meetings between these teams and with plenty at stake, we could be in for another tasty encounter. Guardiola only knows one way to approach a match and that’s to go for the win. Conte may be a little more reserved, as he knows a point will not be bad result.