Chelsea will look to keep their perfect 2014 going on Monday when they travel to Man City in Week 24 of English Premier League.
The clash between the two Premier League contenders is seen as one of the most highly anticipated games in England’s top flight. Chelsea will then return to City two weeks later to again dance with Yaya Toure and the 2012 champions on Februsry 15 in a punishing FA Cup draw for both clubs, but more so for the traveling Blues. City have a brilliant home record this season, having not lost at home.
Over at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea are still waiting for the dust to settle from the sale of two-time club Player of the Year Juan Mata to defending Premier League champions Man United.
With so many players who can put the ball in the back of the net like Eden Hazard (eight goals), Oscar (six), Samuel Eto’o (six), Lampard (four), Fernando Torres (four) and Andre Schurrle (three) and a defense which has allowed just two goals all winter, opponents lately have found it hard to crack Chelsea defence. This is one element in favour of visitors
New arrivals like Nemanja Matic and Mohamed Salah will be eager to show what they can contribute in midfield. In this connection, Chelsea are truly a team to watch. Behind rampant City, the Blues are the second hottest club in the Premier League at the moment.
After Monday’s clash, Chelsea travel to Man City in the FA Cup fifth round.
The fixtures in the coming weeks could be pivotal in City’s campaign, starting with last Wednesday’s trip to Tottenham Hotspur in the EPL.
Blues manager José Mourinho insists that Chelsea have nothing to lose in their battle at City and that all of the pressure will be on Manuel Pellegrini’s team, given the scale of their outlay in the transfer market.
Mourinho remembered the pressure that was on his Chelsea team during his first spell at the club, when Blues owner, Roman Abramovich, lavished huge sums on players to fire a push for trophies, and he is now expecting same pressure to be on City. The Chelsea manager has repeatedly suggested that City should already be well ahead in the title race given the quality in their squad.
“We are ready to go there to City in the FA Cup and enjoy,” Mourinho said.
“We are going to go there with a good attitude and nothing to lose. They have everything to lose. They are the team that was made to win. They have to feel now the same thing I was feeling here in 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007.
“We are the best team by far. We have to win. If we don’t, it’s because we did something wrong. “
“We have nothing to lose, the former Real Madrid coach said.”
If Chelsea’s visit to the Etihad Stadium is the outstanding tie of the round, the draw threw up a second meeting of comparable magnitude, with Arsenal welcoming Liverpool.
Mourinho watched his Chelsea team beat Stoke City 1-0 at home but then got arguably the worst possible FA Cup draw: a visit to a stadium where City have been scoring at eye-popping rate this season.
So far the year has been pretty good to the Blues, who have won all their matches, conceding just one goal—to Man United’s Javier Hernandez in a 3-1 home win on Jan. 19—and registering four clean sheets in their last five games.
Chelsea advanced to the fifth round of the FA Cup with a 1-0 win over Stoke City, courtesy of a brilliant first-half free-kick goal by Brazilian midfielder Oscar.
City skipper Vincent Kompany has fired a warning to his team-mates after identifying a potential crack in their armour.
The versatile stopper has warned his team-mates against complacency as his side head into a critical phase of their season.
“Our weakness is our strength, like any other squad that is so dominant and so attack minded.
“We play with two strikers and two wingers who are virtually strikers and one of our midfield players – which we only have two of – is also virtually a striker.
“Our full-backs are pushing up all the time, ultimately out of a team of 11 players we have six or seven who are always involved in the attack and it just means that there is a lot of ground to cover when you lose the ball.
“It’s a risk but it’s a style of playing that suits us at the moment.
“Complacency is our biggest enemy, it’s very simple. “We have six or seven players thinking offensive, and that just means we have to be super aggressive to recover the ball quickly.
“When we don’t have the ball, ultimately we’re not as good anymore, so I think a good strength is to know how you function. This is how we function, so there are no excuses for us not to look to get the ball back very quickly.”
City have an edge in this top of the table encounter having gone 20 games unbeaten, 18 of which they have won, and their attack has been formidable, with 115 goals scored this season.
By: Anthony Nlebem
