Pre Match Thread: Chelsea vs City

[mancity1]

Unless we dramatically improve from the form we have displayed since the game against West Brom , Costa , Fabragas or not we won't get anything from Stanford Bridge.

They haven't dropped a point at home this season and still have more than enough strength in midfield which is where this battle will be decided anyway to cope with the loss of Costa.

Its high time we broke the YAYA hoodoo I agree but in the past 7 games the players have shown a distinct dislike for the contest against opposition far inferior to Chelsea.

I would take a draw it it were offered to me right now no matter who is playing for Chelsea on Saturday.

Of course that's not the right attitude the players should be taking they must go into every game expecting to win so its critical we do not concede at all on Saturday.

We must start to have clean sheets if we are to remain competitive this season and we haven't been able to do it for quite sometime.

 

[Jullarkey]

I think people are forgetting too easily how diabolical we've been lately. No matter who Chelsea have missing, we seriously need to up our game and start taking our chances in front of goal

Lol

Weird response considering how we've been playing since Christmas but I do take the point that form goes out the window here. Hopefully this extra week of training with no unnecessary travel will do the likes of Kun and Kompany the world of good. If we can get Silva in positions behind Matic similar to Sterling in the 2 legs, I think we can really hurt them.
My only real worry is the protection in front of the back four. Hopefully the two Fern's can produce a Roma-like display and keep things simple.

 

[Chrisdunk]

I see that little cnut Hazard was diving all over the place again last night v Victimpool.

Always makes me laugh when people are more outraged by a "dive" then when these gifted footballers get the shit kicked out of them. This diver should have been at the club but we signed Sinclair instead.

 

[mancity1]

I see that little cnut Hazard was diving all over the place again last night v Victimpool.

Always makes me laugh when people are more outraged by a "dive" then when these gifted footballers get the shit kicked out of them. This diver should have been at the club but we signed Sinclair instead.

We can't get them all even if the players first choice is us or at least us ahead of a rival like Chelsea.

If they have a missus or a wag that they want to hold onto for whatever reason they have a big say in it as well.

Fabragas's misses said London or we stay and he could have stayed at Barca even with SUarez coming in make no bones about it.

Hazard has turned out to be a decent signing no doubt.

Given his speed on the ball he is going to do his fair share of diving as he is going to get kicked about like Silva.

Personally we should have made bigger inroads for Sanchez who I think would have been more valuable for us than Hazard especially with the MP connection but again we had other priorities and FFP held a gun to our head to a degree.

 

[Chippy_boy]

I think we are better than them and their fitness and availability problems finally evens things up.

I think a fully fit, in form City with Aguero, Silva, Nasri, Toure, Kompany all at the top of their game, is a much better side than Chelsea can field. I agree with that much.

The problem is, how often have do we have that available? Saturday we are missing 2 of the 5 and another 2 have been woefully short of match fitness/form. We only have Silva who has been playing at anything like his best. 1 player out of the 5 key players in our team is not enough.

We may well get something on Saturday, because that's football and it would be "typical City" to end Chelsea's unbeaten home run, having ourselves just lost at against Arsenal and Middlesborough. But am I expecting it? No, I can't say I am. They are at home and the side they can field is better than the side we have been fielding lately.

 

[raymondkl92]

Hopefully they don't sign Cuadrado in time for the game.

 

[chris85mcfc]

I don't think form will play a big part in a game like this, there's so much at stake that neither team will play their usual game and are more likely to be a bit more pragmatic

I think Chelsea know that we are capable of going there and winning, and they know that us winning there on Saturday changes the whole landscape of the season. Where as we know that getting beat practically ends our title chase, so a draw for both teams isn't a bad result

Without Costa they are a different team, i don't care who else they have in their team it just changes everything. He is the talisman and he leads from the front, neither Drogba or Remy are capable of doing what he does, similar to us losing Sergio. If Fabregas is missing as well then they are also losing their supply line into Hazard, so we won't be given a better chance to go there and get all 3 points than if those two are both out

IF Fabregas is out as well as Costa, this is a bigger blow to them than us being without Yaya IMO, as we have proved over the last few seasons that without Yaya we can still win football matches, and big ones at that, they are yet to prove that without Costa and Fabregas so it will be a big test for them

 

[the originalkippaxman]

I see that little cnut Hazard was diving all over the place again last night v Victimpool.

Always makes me laugh when people are more outraged by a "dive" then when these gifted footballers get the shit kicked out of them. This diver should have been at the club but we signed Sinclair instead.

Hazard deal was more complicated than was first made out. Don't forget Chelsea agreed to buy his Brother Thorgan as well which was at a greatly overinflated price though reported as Undisclosed all to compensate the Eden price. I don't think anybody will truly know what the buy price was for Hazard but I don't thing you would be far off from doubling the £32M that was reported at the time. Don't forget Salomon Kalou surprisingly went to Lille on a free as well.

 

[MatthewEdwards95]

We will beat the plastic flag wavers on Saturday, their rentboy fans will get nervous when Aguero bangs one in. Hope Zaba crunches Eden Divzard. 2-1 to us. COME ON CITY

 

[Wio Gumflapdinand]

Problem we have at the moment is we have nothing in midfield which is where Chelsea are strongest. This where games like this are won and lost. I'm not confident, but I think if we can shift the ball quickly from back to front and forget about tippy-tappy it about..I really believe their backline can be seriously hurt if put under enough pressure like Spurs did.