Man City/Chelsea Preview- By Demola Aluko

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Updated: February 3, 2014

By Demola Aluko

…………….Jose Mourinho will most likely wake up to unusual ”good luck” messages from Arsenal fans as the city of Manchester is set to witness Monday’s showdown between ”the noisy neighbours” and the Blues.

If statistic is a criteria to be considered in deciding the outcome of a match, then this encounter could be said to be premier league’s game of the season as it bring the best attacking team against the best defensive.

City are currently the highest goal scoring side in Europe, having scored 68 goals in 23 league matches, while Chelsea have conceded the least goals, 20 in the Barclays Premiership.

Only one team, the European champions Bayern Munich has been able to stain Manchester City’s 100% home record with a defeat at the Etihad this season. This shows the potential threat Chelsea are facing on Monday. Jose Mourinho personally testified to City’s incredible attacking power in an interview shortly after his side was forced to a goalless draw at Stamford Bridge last week. When told by reporters that City had humiliated Tottenham by five goals to one, the Portuguese replied ” I’m not surprised. Manchester City can score 4, 5, 6 goals against anybody.”

However, a few days later, Mourinho dismissed claims that ”City were the best team in the world”, a statement attributed to Tottenham manager Tim Sherwood. According to the self acclaimed ”special one”, ”City will be humiliated in the European Champions League” in the next round of the tournament.

Back to Monday’s showdown, it would be interesting to see if Chelsea will chose a conservative approach when they file out at the Etihad, or go all out like the real ”big boys”, which they ought to be. The conservative approach in this context will mean ”the 19 century football”, a phrase used by the Chelsea boss to describe defensive tactic applied by West Ham against the Blues in a London derby last week. Going all out against City at home, however, could be disastrous as witnessed by Arsenal and Tottenham. The two London teams conceded six goals each for being adventurous at the Etihad.

This game will surely be one of the most technical premier league fixtures of the season so far, as point lost or gained on Monday will go a long way to determine the winners of the 2013/2014 edition among the three serious contenders.

Arsenal fans, knowing the potential setback City’s victory will be to the Gunners’ ambition, will hope and pray that their London rivals pull a surprise win at the Etihad, so their hopes of winning the league stay intact.

However, one man who has tipped Manchester City to win the encounter is Arsenal manager himself, Arsene Wenger.

”It’s going to be a game that everybody will want to see. I believe that there is a small psychological advantage for Manchester City right now: they had a convincing win against Tottenham and Chelsea were quite disappointed by their game against West Ham. But Chelsea have always managed to turn up during the big matches.” Wenger said.

”City have been quite amazing this season. They have exceptional firepower. They are not unbeatable, but they found their rhythm and will be hard to perturb.”

”I would give a small advantage to Manchester City for Monday’s game against Chelsea, because they will play at home and have been almost unbeatable there since the beginning of the season.”

”And it’s going to be a great tactical battle: Jose Mourinho will try to defend extremely well, and counter-attack. And Manchester City will try to put Chelsea’s defence under pressure and score goal after goal.” He added.

A win for chelsea will guarantee Arsenal’s stay at the top of the Premier League Table, at least for another week.

By Demola Aluko

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