Chelsea FC travel to The Etihad this afternoon to face Manchester City. Here are our writers’ thoughts on the game…
Manchester City are the hosts at 4pm BST today when Chelsea FC make the journey up north to try and kickstart their 2015/16 Premier League title defence. Ahead of the big match, here is how our ‘experts’ at The Pride Of London think the game will go.
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Andrew Martin: I’ve got City over Chelsea 2-1. I think it will be tough without Thibaut Courtois and being on the road won’t help. A late goal from David Silva will push them over the top. Although I’d love to be wrong.
Joshua Sutter: I’ll go City 1, Chelsea 1. Recently these hyped City-Chelsea matchups have ended in draws, and I don’t see any reason why this game will be any different. A goal from Diego Costa will see the Blues on top, but then the Yaya Toure crap deflection goal will see City tie it at 1.
Taylor Anderson: I see a 1-1 draw as well, it just seems to be the score to play for without Courtois, but I’d love to be wrong as well. City should be our main title rivals again, so any result against them would be solid.
Tyler Strauss: Agree with the 1-1. Anti-climactic game for both teams. Also a draw favors Chelsea in my opinion.
David Rouben: I’d like to call this at 1-1, and that’s probably the best-case scenario, but there’s too many distractions in the Chelsea camp currently. There’s Eva-gate while not having Thibaut is a big blow. Not to mention City have the momentum after a strong first week performance. I hope they prove me wrong, but I think this ends 2-1 to Man City.
Khaled Abdallah: 1-0 to Chelsea with Fabregas scoring the winner. City looked really good against West Brom but the Baggies opened themselves up to that which we won’t do of course. Begovic is up to the task but it’ll be a close and tough affair.
As for myself? Well I’m going to go with a 2-1 Man City result. I would love to have egg on my face and Chelsea to run out 3-0 winners, but I struggle to see a draw happening. Having said that, Mourinho is still the man in charge so expect anything.
We’ll be doing picks throughout the season for some of the bigger games, and we are keeping track of our predictive powers. Here’s how the table currently stands. 5 points for correct result, 2 points for correct score
| Name | Games Played | Correct Score | Correct Result | Total Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ajitesh Rasgotra | 8 | 1 | 3 | 11 |
| Eric McCoy | 2 | 2 | 0 | 10 |
| Khaled Abdallah | 7 | 0 | 4 | 8 |
| Andre Carlisle | 5 | 1 | 1 | 7 |
| Ayushman Basu | 3 | 1 | 1 | 7 |
| David Rouben | 2 | 1 | 1 | 7 |
| Connor Tomko | 4 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| Andrew Martin | 4 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| Brendan McDonnell | 4 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| Ollie Browning | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| Marco Vonderheide | 5 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| Daniel Childs | 3 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| Devesh Rasgotra | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Anoop Ramakrishnan | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Joseph Williams | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Gaurav Sardesai | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Mark Treadwell | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Neel Madhavan | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Joshua Sutter | 4 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Taylor Anderson | 4 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Ejoh Celestine | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Lee Fraser | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Tyler Strauss | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
That’s our picks, now what about you? Let us know in the comments below! Also be sure to check in with all of our big-game coverage at our hub page here.
Next: Nemanja Matic: If Chelsea FC Win, All Will Be Forgotten