The Battle of the Blues

Berbatron’s Note: Long-time Blues fan Ratna Prashanth tells us what to expect from the big money battle between the two Blues of the premier league. 

Stamford bridge is going to be the venue for a great showdown tomorrow. Its Chelsea vs Man City, otherwise titled the battle of the 2 BLUE spenders.

AVB in is his prematch press conference called this the most the crucial match that defines the title race for Chelsea and whole of Premier League. This match will decide the Blues’ title challenge and sky blues title race dominance. Also, it is AVB versus Mancini, a battle of two (relatively) new managers at their clubs. Both will be looking to win this match at all costs esp AVB, whose side need win to keep the title challenge alive, and Champions League qualification. Mancini on the other hand might settle for a draw, but  the victory that he spearheaded at Old Trafford indicates that he might go for attacking football against the leaking Chelsea defence. My prediction is that both will go for an all out attacking game with a large number of goals in the game. Either way, we will have a interesting outing today for sure!

Probable Lineups

Chelsea: With David Luiz suspended and Alex banished from first team, Chelsea will have a makeshift defence. The rest of the lineup will be as same as the one AVB had for the Valencia match.

Cech

Bosingwa      Ivanovic      Terry      Cole

     Ramires      Romeu      Meireles

Sturridge      Drogba       Mata

Man City: Mancity will line up with the same formation they employed against Manchester United. With Chelsea having a makeshift defence, Mancini will probably look to exploit this at the Bridge with the same formation.

Hart

Zabaleta      Kompany      Lescott      Clichy

    Toure               De Jong

Nasri          Aguero          Silva

Dzeko

Key Battles

Clichy vs Sturridge – Sturridge is in the form of his life at the moment and is scoring lots of goals. Clichy on other hand is getting better and better with each passing match. In the Newcastle match most attacks from Chelsea came from the right wing side. So Clichy will have to be at his best to negate Sturridge attacks down the flanks. It will be mouth watering duel between the Frenchman and the Englishman.

Kompany vs Drogba - The captain vs the beast! Both men are strong physically and both love the physical battle. Expect a tough fight between these two. I bet both will neutralize each other.

Romeu vs Silva – Man City has the two most prolific players in the country in the name of Silva and Aguero, with Silva being their playmaker/heartbeat. Romeu will have the biggest test of his career facing these two individuals. He has to man-mark Silva so that his killer passes are minimized. Aguera on other hand will look to drop deep and support Dzeko upfront and Romeu must make sure he interprets all city attacking moves and negate them. He has good support from Ramires and Meireles and the game will be won in these key areas.

Mata vs Zabaleta - Mata is the chief playmaker of Chelsea , who loves to cut in and play at the center. The main task of Zabaleta will be to prevent mata from breaking in and Toure will likely  be supporting the cause. If Mata is stopped then Chelsea are stopped! Manicini knows it and will set up his players accordingly.

Scoreline Prediction

Man City has too much flair, power, pace against Chelsea. Man City will definitely score, given they have hammered about a thousand goals past their opponents in the recent games, and Chelsea haven’t been great a the back. It could end up being a comfortable 2-0 at the Bridge for City, putting more pressure on the under pressure AVB.