Sports Blog 05/04/2017: Premier League Preview – Chelsea vs Manchester City, Wednesday 5th April 2017

Can Chelsea bounce back from their shock weekend defeat when they host Manchester City at 8pm on BT Sport 1?

Antonio Conte won’t be too happy that the Blues’ lead at the top of the table shrank following their surprising home loss to Crystal Palace on Saturday. Now, there is still a 7 points gap between Chelsea and 2nd place Tottenham, and the Blues have a relatively easy run in (tonight’s game and mid-April’s trip to Man United excluded). However, there is precedent for that kind of deficit to be overturned – specifically by Man City – so failure to pick up all 3 points this evening, alongside a win for Spurs at Swansea, would cause a few alarm bells to ring at Stamford Bridge.



There are also their issues going forwards. Diego Costa hasn’t been anywhere near as prolific as he was earlier in the season, scoring just 3 goals in the 10 Premier League games played since the start of 2017. By some way he remains Chelsea’s top scorer, however, and heads into Wednesday night at a Super Mega PGM of 28-34. Eden Hazard and Michy Batshuayi are then at 23-28, while Willian is at 13-17.

City haven’t actually won a game in their last 3 league fixtures, drawing consecutive matches against Stoke, Liverpool and Arsenal. Given the teams involved that’s not a bad set of results, though if the trend continues any longer it could put the Guardiola’s European intentions in doubt. For while their title challenge is effectively over, there is still some work to do for them to secure a top 4 finish. They currently sit in 4th place, a point behind Liverpool but with a game in hand; that leaves them in a good position to reach the Champions League next season, but with potential challenges from the Reds, Arsenal and Man United.

Things got rather testy the last time these two sides met, with 2 reds cards and 5 yellows (the majority of which coming in the final few minutes of injury time), leading Spreadex to offer a fiery Bookings spread of 56-60. As for the result itself the hosts just about have the edge, with a Chelsea/Manchester City Goal Supremacy spread of 0.15-0.35 joined by a Total Goals spread of 2.7-2.9.