MY ACCOUNT
Chelsea have scored in 22 of their last 23 games at Stamford Bridge
Both teams have scored in 56% of Man City’s PL games this season
Recommended Bet: Back Both teams to score
A Stamford Bridge showdown between Chelsea and Manchester City completes the latest round of Premier League fixtures on Thursday night.
The Blues have won one, lost one and drawn one since they were knocked out of the Carabao Cup when suffering a 2-0 defeat at the hands of City in November.
That indifferent form, shown again by Graham Potter’s side in their 1-1 draw at Nottingham Forest last Sunday, led club captain Cesar Azpilicueta to admit “now we are really far from where we want to be”.
Failure to overcome Everton last Saturday left City seven points adrift of table-toppers Arsenal going into 2023 — a gap that has since increased to eight after the Gunners’ goalless draw with Newcastle.
Pep Guardiola has warned his champions that they have to be “almost perfect” for the rest of the season to catch the Gunners.
Team news
While Chelsea officials work on adding yet more reinforcements to Potter’s squad, the medical staff are busy trying to get several injured first-team stars back up and running.
Long-term absentees N’Golo Kante and Armando Broja have no chance of featuring this month while Chelsea will still be without right-back Reece James (knee) and goalkeeper Eduoard Mendy (shoulder) for Thursday’s match.
Wesley Fofana remains a doubt, but Ruben Loftus-Cheek, who has returned to training from a calf injury, could make the matchday squad.
Mateo Kovacic is expected to be recalled in place of Denis Zakaria with Hakim Ziyech also pushing his claims to make a first Premier League start under Potter after an impressive showing off the bench in Nottingham.
For City, Argentinian World Cup hero Julian Alvarez is in contention to start again after coming off the bench late on against Everton.
Aymeric Laporte (back) and Ruben Dias (hamstring) are still sidelined, but the Spain international’s issue is not expected to keep him out for much longer.
Kyle Walker, Joao Cancelo, Phil Foden and Ilkay Gundogan will also be hoping to earn recalls with the Portuguese defender likely to start because of his versatility.
Left-back Rico Lewis could be due a break, but the question of whether Kalvin Phillips is fit enough to feature remains something of a puzzle.
The stats
In 50 prior Premier League meetings between the clubs, City won just three of the first 25 (12%), but they have subsequently won 13 of the last 25 (52%).
Chelsea did not register a single shot in the first half of their last top-flight clash with the Citizens in January 2022 — the first time they had failed to do so in the Premier League since May 2018.
Guardiola’s side have only lost one of their past 25 away league matches (won 18, drawn six) — that being the 1-0 defeat to Liverpool in October.
Chelsea, meanwhile, have lost just one of their past 11 league home games (won six, drawn four), with the only blemish on their record being the 1-0 defeat by Arsenal last November, which was also the only time they have failed to score in their past 23 league games at Stamford Bridge.
Prediction
City were kicking themselves when they let two points slip at home to Everton in a game where they had an xG of more than two compared to less than 0.1 for the visitors.
But Guardiola’s men have been very efficient away from home this term, winning four of their seven road games and losing only once.
It was noticeable against Leeds, however, that they could not clinch victory with a clean sheet despite being 3-0 up with less than 20 minutes to play.
Both teams have scored in 56% of the champions’ games this season, a significant increase on the 39% in their 2021-22 title-winning campaign
Chelsea have hit the back of the net in all but one of their last 23 home contests and should oblige here with both teams to score available to back at 3/4 with LiveScore Bet.
