Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
It’s without question the biggest of the six Premier League fixtures Tonight as league leaders Chelsea play host to Manchester City with many asking the question do we now have a title race on our hands? With Antonio Conte’s side seemingly costing prior to the weekend their defeat at home to Crystal Palace has just mixed up proceedings slightly.
The Blues still have a 7 point gap over Tottenham and are still odds on favourites to win this season’s Premier League but it’s fair to say that the majority of neutrals would like to see at least some semblance of a real title challenge between now and the end of the season, of course not forgetting that a win for Manchester City would see them propelled back into the title mix.
It really was one of those days for Chelsea on Saturday, after taking the lead early through Cesc Fabregas they then conspired to concede two quickfire goals to Palace with Wilifried Zaha and Christian Benteke overturning the deficit for Sam Allardyce’s side. But with still 80 odd minutes left for Chelsea to get back into the game they wasted countless chances to at least salvage a point from this London derby.
It did at least show that Chelsea are not invincible and were perhaps were caught cold by the regrouping after the international break. The key tonight for Conte is to make sure that his players are not caught out twice in the space of a few days as they play host to Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City who play their second London based fixture in a row.
That’s because they failed to put Arsenal to the sword on Sunday after going ahead twice at The Emirates. With Leroy Sane putting City ahead after just 5 minutes you had the feeling that the writing was on the wall for The Gunners but it seemed as if City were only prepared to turn it on once the scores were level. It was almost as if they were toying with Arsene Wenger’s players but questions will be asked as to why they did not go for the jugular.
At 2-2 in the second half the game petered out into an anti climax, it was almost a game that neither team wanted to lose instead of really wanting a win. A point that probably suited Arsenal more than it did City as they looked to recover from the embarrassing defeat to West Brom before the international hiatus. While for City it meant that they stay in 4th with their hopes of winning the title becoming more diminished.
But those hopes can be reignited if they do manage to get something out of tonight’s all important clash. Although if they are going to thrust themselves into the title mix once again then they really do need to earn a victory at Stamford Bridge and exact some revenge for their defeat at The Etihad earlier in the season. Last December saw the game end in a bruising fashion as Sergio Aguero and Fernandinho were sent off as Guardiola’s men lost their heads.
Aguero’s reckless lunge on David Luiz sparked a small scale riot as Fernandinho did his best WWE impression on Cesc Fabregas and nearly chokeslammed him over the advertising hoardings. It was a game that saw Conte get the battle of the tactical war over Guardiola and you get the feeling that the former Barcelona and Bayern boss will be looking to settle the score tonight by masterminding a win on Chelsea’s turf.
Whether that can be done remains to be seen, are Chelsea there for the taking or will they be fired up as they look to bounce back from Saturday’s defeat. They certainly will not want to give up any more ground to Tottenham or let City into the title race for that matter. The heart says that Chelsea will drop more points but unfortunately my head says they will return to winning ways and pick up the vital win this evening.
