(Football news) Their West London competitors are trying to increase their chances of finishing in the top seven, while the Citizens are trying to challenge Liverpool at the top.
Manchester City’s fixtures are still coming in thick and fast as they aim to win an unprecedented triple, but at a pivotal stretch in the second half of the season, Pep Guardiola’s team has had little trouble putting together another one of their signature winning runs.
Indeed, Manchester City have won each of their last 11 matches across all tournaments, a run which began with success at the Club World Cup in mid-December and was most recently extended courtesy of a 3-1 away victory over Copenhagen in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie on Tuesday.
Goals from Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden ensured that Manchester City would take a two-goal advantage into their second leg on home soil in three weeks’ time; their focus now shift back to the Premier League title race as they attempt to close the two-point gap that separates them in second with leaders Liverpool, who could momentarily move five points clear if they beat Brentford in Saturday’s lunchtime kickoff.
Manchester City are gearing up for three home fixtures in their next four and will welcome a return to the Etihad where they have not lost any of their last 22 Premier League games. Manchester City have also won six of their last eight top-flight home meetings with Saturday’s opponents Chelsea, keeping a clean sheet in five of those victories in the process.
Clean sheets have been hard to come by for the Citizens this season, though, as Guardiola’s side have conceded in 11 of their last 13 Premier League games, and they can ill-afford to show any defensive frailties this weekend against a Chelsea side who fired four goals past them in the reverse fixture and have since netted eight times in their last three games this month.
This season, Chelsea has been middling in the middle of the table due to their frustratingly inconsistent play. However, following two crucial 3-1 road victories over Aston Villa and Crystal Palace, head coach Mauricio Pochettino has had some relief following his team’s two four-goal losses to Liverpool and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Five days after putting on possibly their best performance of the season to defeat Villa in an FA Cup fourth-round replay, the Blues were staring down the barrel of defeat against Palace on Monday as they trailed at halftime despite controlling 80% of the possession at Selhurst Park and failing to register a single shot on target.
