Chelsea’s two wins in two games have restored a bit of stability to a team that was in a very dangerous place after defeat to Liverpool and Wolves last week, but our run of tricky games continues with the hardest test of all this weekend – a trip to Manchester to face Pep Guardiola’s all conquering Man City team, just as they’re hitting their usual unstoppable post-Christmas stride.
A week ago, we wouldn’t have fancied Mauricio Pochettino’s team to survive with anything less than a full on beating. But being able to beat Aston Villa in a vital FA Cup replay bought us some time, and we followed it with a gritty late win over Crystal Palace last night.
Despite all that, the Blues are still an eye popping 15/2 to win at the Etihad on Saturday night. Sites like New Zealand betting hub lordofodds.co.nz clearly don’t fancy us one bit, despite two wins in a row. Just imagine what they’d be offering had we not scored twice late last night to beat Palace? It’s a stark reminder of how poor we’ve been at times.
To be fair, we’ve seen some of our better performances this season against strong sides. We did really well against City in our first game this season, scoring a late equaliser after a game where we showed we are no pushovers.
There are a few other nuggets of hope to cling onto. It was notable that Christopher Nkunku was rested from the start in both of our last two games. That was all clearly with the City game in mind, and should mean he’s able to start and finish that match. His finesse is something we’ve lacked all season, and his eye for goal may be vital in a game like this.
We’re still waiting for more information about Thiago Silva, who went off injured last night. Some fans have been calling for him to be dropped, but against a City team likely to push us back towards our own goal, we think we’d still rather have the veteran marshalling our defence rather than a fairly untested new combination of (likely) Levi Colwill and Axel Disasi.
Still, it’s a huge game and one we can’t wait for already. The team has a few days to prepare, albeit fewer than City, and we hope that Pochettino is using it wisely to get us prepared for one of the season’s most difficult away trips.
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