12 Jun 2019
On Saturday, the past two Premier League champions face off in the Premier League as Chelsea host Manchester City at Stamford Bridge.
For Chelsea, it’s an opportunity to bounce back from a frustrating loss away to Wolves in mid-week, while Manchester City will be looking to maintain their unbeaten start to the season. In total, they’re now unbeaten in their last 21 in the league.
With ten points now separating the two sides, it’s a must-win game for Sarri’s Blues if they’re to keep their title hopes alive.
Interestingly, both sides recorded 70% possession in their respective games in mid-week. Although we expect Manchester City to dominate in that sense on Saturday, the game could be determined by how much the teams’ respective midfield playmakers see of the ball.
Midfield Maestros
Pep Guardiola made six changes in midweek, but it appears that whoever enters the fold seems to deliver for City. Their goal difference in this year’s Premier League illustrates that as the best recorded by an English top-flight team after the first 15 games of the season since Sunderland in 1892-93.
With Aguero out injured, a rested Raheem Sterling looks a good bet to score anytime at Premier League betting odds of 15/8. He has four in his last four appearances in the league.
Aside from him, any one of Sane, Mahrez and Silva could quite easily get their name on the scoresheet and we quite fancy Sane in that sense after a resurgent return to the team in recent weeks. He comes in at football betting odds of 2/1 to score anytime.
Capable Chelsea
Despite City’s rampant nature in front of goal this season, in games against ‘Big Six’ opposition, they have only scored six goals at an average of 1.5 per game. Chelsea themselves have also shown they can hold their own against that calibre of opposition, having earnt a hard-fought point against Liverpool in October.
If Chelsea are to give themselves a chance on Saturday though, Eden Hazard will need to re-find his early season form.
Chelsea have scored 31 goals in their 15 games in the Premier League so far this season, so it appears the service is there, but Hazard hasn’t registered since October 7th. He comes in at football betting odds of 7/4 to score anytime.
City Sitting Pretty
Although Chelsea are unbeaten at home in their last 11, they’ve lost their last three against Manchester City including a 2-0 defeat in the Community Shield this August. On that day, the Blues failed to score, a theme that has been constant throughout the last three games between the two sides.
To add to that, each of those last three games have featured under 2.5 goals. Given Manchester City’s recent record in front of goal and the fact that they’ve conceded just twice from open play in the Premier League this season, under 2.5 goals looks an enticing bet at odds of 23/20.
If you fancy the most recent result in this fixture to be repeated, you can get odds of 9/1 for City to win 2-0.
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