Man City vs Chelsea Preview, Team News, Line-Ups, Betting Tips & Predicted Score

Manchester City play host to Chelsea as two of this seasons Premier League title favourites go head to head at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday lunchtime.

City head in to the game sitting third in the table following last weekend’s 2-1 win at Burnley but they remain just one point adrift of leaders Chelsea after they beat Tottenham at Stamford Bridge.

Pep Guardiola will therefore be desperate to beat the West Londoners and go clear at the top of the table ahead of second-placed Liverpool’s clash with Bournemouth on Sunday.

However, Antonio Conte won’t be ready to give-up first place without a fight and the Italian coach has rejuvenated his Chelsea side since switching to his preferred 3-4-3 formation back in September.

Since making the tactical switch, Chelsea have won seven league games on the bounce and have conceded just once during that run – which was a superb strike by Christian Eriksen last weekend.

Team news

City have no fresh injury worries to contend with but they’ve been handed a major boost with Guardiola confirming that Raheem Sterling is in contention after recovering from a knock.

John Stones and Ilkay Gundogan are also expected to get recalls after not featuring at Burnley last time out but Vincent Kompany remains out with a knee injury.

Chelsea will make a late fitness check on John Obi Mikel as the Nigerian international is still a doubt with a muscle injury that kept him out of the Spurs game last week.

John Terry is certain to miss out after he was ruled out for three weeks with a buttock injury so Conte is expected to name an unchanged line-up for the seventh game in a row.

Likely Line-Ups

Predicted Score

Man City 1-1 Chelsea: This is going to be an intriguing battle between two of the best young coaches in world football. City are devastating on their day but Chelsea have proven to be extremely difficult to beat [or even draw against] since they moved to 3-4-3 so I think this one could end up being a 1-1 draw.

Betting Tips

City are the 6/5 favourites to win the game but we can get you enhanced odds of 6/1 on City or 12/1 on Chelsea – just click here or below to take advantage of these crazy odds. Here are some other bets I like the look of:

• Both teams to score at 8/13 – a £10 bet returns 16.10
• Exact score of 1-1 draw at 6/1 – a £10 bet returns £70
• Aguero to score first in 1-1 draw at 22/1 – a £10 bet returns £230