Chelsea’s youngsters hope to shock Manchester City

Frank Lampard’s Chelsea squad visit the Etihad this weekend, hoping to pull of a huge upside against a Manchester City side looking to regain their momentum.

This week’s match between the surprising third and fourth teams in the Premier League table (Chelsea are one point clear of City) feature two teams with drastically different reviews of their season so far.

For Chelsea, under new manager and former club legend, Frank Lampard, the Blues have been a surprising success. Led by a group of youngsters such as Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham, and most recently, American Christian Pulisic, the team from Stamford Bridge have ridden a streak of six consecutive victories, with their last league loss coming against a common opponent with City, Liverpool.

While Chelsea have been blessed with a favourable set of fixtures recently, Lampard should be lauded for the work he has done with a squad of youngsters.  The Blues attack has been lead by Abraham who has been everything that fans could have hoped for, with 10 goals on the season, and reminding some of a young Didier Drogba.

Most recently, off-season signing Pulisic has come on as well, with five goals in the past three matches, however the American international may be a question mark for this Saturday with a hip injury that kept him from international duties this past week as well.

Chelsea go into this week’s match as underdogs but they will be excited to prove their growth against a well seasoned and talented team, giving themselves a marquee win for their season (they have lost the only two matches they’ve had against “Big six” clubs in United and Liverpool).

For the home team, City will look to right their ship after a deflating and controversial away loss to the Reds two weeks ago. This was not the position last year’s league winners expected to find themselves three months into the season; nine points off top in the league table.

The City attack has been as good as its ever been, with Raheem Sterling and Sergio Aguero near the top of the table with goals scored and Kevin De Bruyne being absolutely masterful in the midfield.  For Pep’s men to find kind of success they are looking for again, it will be their defending that will need to lead them back to the success.

Injuries have ravaged the Citizens defence, with key players like goalkeeper, Ederson and centre-back,Aymeric Laporte picking up injuries along the way.  Their replacements, Claudio Bravo and Jon Stones have been underwhelming at best.

Coupled with the off-season departure of Vincent Kompany, City’s defending is lacking both health and leadership.  Fernandinho has done his best to keep things together but one would expect City to look for defensive reinforcements in the upcoming transfer window.

While City have been a disappointment thus far this season, it is only relative to the success they’ve had for the past few years and they are still within relative striking distance with a lot of fixtures left to play.  They will hope that this match up against a young and talented Chelsea team is what spurs them back on the road to success.

Team news

City will be without the services of the great Bernardo Silva, who will be serving a one match suspension for a tweet sent to teammate, Benjamin Mendy, that had racial overtones.  On the positive side, there is a chance that Ederson may be able to return from a muscular injury picked up in the Citizens’ Champions league fixture against Atalanta. The Brazilian returned to practice this week however Guardiola has yet to confirm that he will be in the starting XI for this Saturday.

Chelsea will be hopeful that Pulisic will be fully recovered from the hip injury he’s been dealing with for the past few weeks.  The young American has been in terrific form lately and the Blues can use all the firepower they can get this weekend.  The good news is that he has resumed training this week and according to Lampard, “is in contention to play.”

Guardiola asserting that the Title Race is not over yet:

“A few weeks ago there were two contenders and now we have four so maybe there will be six in a few days. We are in November, there is a long way to play”

Lampard on currently being ahead of City in the league table and the barometer this week’s match will be on their season so far:

“The levels they have reached have been incredible. For us to be in that position, I am pleased with. But I want more. It’s not the end story, they are a strong outfit. I won’t make huge judgements on tomorrow, our story is three months in the making.”

Head-to-head

Chelsea wins: 67

Draws: 39

Manchester City wins: 57