Man City v Chelsea- Preview, Predictions, and Best Bets

Man City host Chelsea at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday in the Carabao Cup. The hosts have taken this tournament very seriously in recent seasons, lifting the trophy under Pep Guardiola in four successive seasons between 2017 and 2021. Chelsea reached last season’s final but were beaten on penalties by Liverpool. Graham Potter’s side desperately needs a reaction after going four Premier League matches without victory.

Man City Form

City have lost once since May, a 1-0 loss to Liverpool in mid-October. The side are playing well and some recent draws, 0-0 at Copenhagen FC and 0-0 at Dortmund were practically dead rubbers in the Champions League. After the Liverpool loss, they beat Brighton 3-1.

Their last three matches have seen a 1-0 win at Man City before beating Sevilla 3-1 at home with a heavily-rotated side. Over the weekend, they played more than an hour with ten men yet still beat Fulham 2-1 at home with 70% possession. Erling Haaland returned from two games out to get the winner from the penalty spot.

Man City Team News

Pep Guardiola should play a relatively strong XI in this match. Aymeric Laporte, Ruben Dias, Sergio Gomez, Phil Foden and Riyad Mahrez were all on the bench against Fulham and should start here. Erling Haaland is back from injury and could be involved, but probably only as a substitute.

Rico Lewis started and scored against Sevilla and could play at right back. Cole Palmer is pushing for another outing too. Joao Cancelo is suspended and both Kyle Walker and Kalvin Phillips are out injured.

Man City Motivation

City have taken this tournament very seriously in the past and will want to win this match. They face Brentford at home over the weekend so Guardiola can rotate heavily between the fixtures and go with a pretty strong XI here.

Chelsea Form

The Blues are not in good form right now. After somewhat burgling a 2-0 win at Aston Villa, they could only draw 0-0 at Brentford and 1-1 at home with Man Utd. A 4-1 thrashing at Brighton was sandwiched by successive Champions League victories though, 2-1 at Salzburg and 2-1 at home to Dinamo Zagreb.

Chelsea made it successive league defeats and four matches without a win by losing 1-0 at home to Arsenal over the weekend. They managed just one shot in the second half and 0.08 Expected Goals from open play in the match.

Chelsea Team News

Graham Potter is without Kepa in goal and all of Reece James, Wesley Fofana, and Ben Chilwell are at the back. Both Jorginho and N’Golo Kante are absent in midfield and Mateo Kovacic surely won’t be risked. Denis Zakaria and Conor Gallagher are set to start whilst youngsters Lewis Hall and Omari Hutchinson have travelled and could make the bench.

In attack, Armando Broja is hoping for a rare start whilst Christian Pulisic could also play, either in attack or as a pseudo-wingback. Thiago Silva is set to be rested as centre back.

Chelsea Motivation

Chelsea have a massive game away at Newcastle on Sunday which will take away much of their focus for this match. Potter is not expected to play a weak team, but certainly, some key men won’t be risked.

Key Stats

Man City have won 15 of their 20 matches this season (all comps)

City have lost just 1 match since May (1 defeat in 24 matches)

Man City have won 15 consecutive home matches

Chelsea are winless in 4 PL matches (DDLL)

CFC have lost their last 2 matches against Man City, both 1-0

Chelsea have conceded in each of their last 5 matches

Verdict

City looks like favourites for this match, but a lot will come down to the starting XI’s selected by the two coaches. The hosts should take the win but it may be worth waiting until an hour before kickoff when the team’s lineups are out.

Best Bet: Man City win at 1.50
Value Bet: Man City win to zero at 2.90
Multiplier Leg: Man City win/draw double chance + under 3.5 goals (90 mins) at 1.90

James O'Connor

James is a football analyst who writes about the tactics of the PSL and English Premier League. He holds the UEFA A coaching licence and has previously worked for several clubs in analysis roles.Twitter: https://twitter.com/footy_analysis