Man City head to London to take on Chelsea on Thursday night and Pep Guardiola could be without two of his key defenders.
Ruben Dias has been out with a hamstring injury and he’s already been ruled for the Stamford Bridge game. His defensive partner, Aymeric Laporte is also recovering from an injury and he will be touch and go.
The Man City boss said during the pre-match press conference: “Ruben is out. Aymer [Laporte], we will see today at the training session.”
Laporte has played in only four Premier League games so far this season so even if he is fully fit, the 28-year-old won’t feature in the starting line up. As far as Dias is concerned, his last league game for the club was way back in the second week of November against Brentford.
For most of this period, John Stones and Nathan Ake have been pairing up in central defence and they will feature against Chelsea as well.
On paper, the absence of players like Ruben Dias and Laporte might be a big boost for Chelsea but in reality, Stones and Ake have done a stellar job.
Also, the Blues have looked completely toothless in attack and if they cannot up their game on Thursday night, there’s no way they will be able to trouble the Man City defenders.
Chelsea have won just two games out of their previous eight outings and in these matches, they have scored only six goals. We really do not expect them to pull the rabbit out of the hat on Thursday night and it will be a job well done if they can even manage to come out with a draw.
Chelsea are currently 10th on the league table with 25 points so anything other than a win will push them down to the second half of the table. Man City, on the other hand, are still maintaining the pressure on Arsenal and after the Gunners dropped points vs Newcastle, Guardiola’s men have another great chance to close the gap.
