Man City vs. Chelsea predictions: Blues might not be up to this challenge

Chelsea dealt Manchester City their first loss of the season. Now they have to do it again to keep their top-four drive alive, even if doing so will accrue to Liverpool’s advantage.

Chelsea need a result to finish the weekend in the top-four, whereas a win will give Manchester City a superficial share of the top of the table. Given the respective managers’ motivational abilities, this is unlikely to resemble Chelsea’s win in the reverse fixture.

Tan Yi Hao: Manchester City 2 – 0 Chelsea. Chelsea were lucky to get a result out of the reverse fixture against Manchester City in the league. Injuries to Kevin de Bruyne and Sergio Aguero limited City’s attacking options, Raheem Sterling was unfortunate to not have opened the scoring early on and Chelsea were uncharacteristically clinical.

With de Bruyne and Aguero back in the squad and Liverpool breathing down their necks in the tit;e race, Manchester City will certainly be up for a pivotal game. As Maurizio Sarri himself has said, his squad can be very difficult  to motivate and fans could be looking at another away loss to a top-six team.

Scott Brant: 1 – 2. Pep Guardiola has lost more league matches to Chelsea than any other opponent. This is one of the few shining lights I can point to as a positive. Another is how half of the goals City concede are from set pieces, the highest ratio in the league. If the Blues are to stand a chance, it will be because Pep hates playing them and they take advantage through set pieces.

Eden Hazard needs a match like he had against Huddersfield, which is easy to say but hard to duplicate against City. Here’s to it being a decent contest and not all about Mike Dean. Eden Hazard and Gonzalo Higuain to score, Sergio Aguero for City.

Hugo Amaya: 3 – 0. Yes, Chelsea won their previous game by five goals against Huddersfield, but does it really count considering they lost against Bournemouth? The answer is a simple no. The Blues will be lucky to only lose by three goals against a very much in-form Manchester City.

Chelsea’s performance won’t be terrible, but as usual, they will have no answers to a team that will press high and hit them with four sharp passes on the counter. Maurizio Sarri is going to show frustration towards the team and blame the lack of motivation, but he knows it was his fault as well. A frustrating match, but nothing to be surprised about.

Kevin Peacock: 1 – 1. Well, you certainly won’t find any of that “we must lose to City so we don’t help Liverpool” crap around here, no sir. With the red side of Manchester on a roll, Chelsea cannot afford to drop many more points if they are to maintain a place in the top four. Against lowly Huddersfield Eden Hazard and Gonzalo Higuain showed promising signs of being able to link up well together, let’s see how that pans out against the title contenders.

In all likelihood, Maurizio Sarri will play his perceived strongest starting XI, and that will mean no place for Callum Hudson-Odoi or Ruben Loftus-Cheek. The game itself may turn into a bore-fest given Chelsea’s propensity to hold onto the ball. In terms of the result, a 1-1 draw will be the order of the day with Eden Hazard scoring before announcing his new deal at Chelsea.

Abhishek Pancholi: 3 – 0. A swallow does not a summer make, as they say. Expectations are on the rise because of a five-goal win and understandably so.

Nope, I can’t do it. Sorry to rain on anyone’s parade, but it was just Huddersfield, the worst team this side of the Championship. As the chant goes, we’re nothing special, they lose every week. Therefore, watching City tear this Chelsea side a new one should not be so shocking, unless you’ve completely submitted yourselves to the cult of Sarrismo.

The hosts were without Sergio Aguero when Chelsea beat them at the start of the season, which meant David Luiz lasted the entire game without being kicked in the thighs or the posterior. And even though Chelsea have Gonzalo Higuain up front now, City simply have the better Argentinian striker, not to mention a midfield that would run rings around the Blues’ absurd mishmash in the middle.

Speaking of absurdities, the official Chelsea Twitter handle last night asked its followers where they would be watching the game. I’ll be right here, watching it through my fingers.