Manchester City will clinch the title with victory over Champions League final rivals Chelsea on Saturday but Dave Tindall says the visitors can do enough to keep the champagne on ice…
Man City v Chelsea
Saturday, 17:30
Live on Sky Sports Premier League
City on the brink
City go into a game that could bring them a fifth Premier League title and third in four years on a massive high.
For the first time in their history they have a Champions League final to look forward and – fixture list irony klaxon – it’ll be against Saturday’s rivals Chelsea.
Victory for City in this 17:30pm kick off would secure they take the title back from Liverpool and, even though it’s a matter of if not when, Pep Guardiola will want to get it done at the first available opportunity.
Of course, it would also give them a psychological edge for the showdown in Istanbul on May 29th as well as exacting some revenge for Chelsea beating them in the FA Cup semi-finals last month.
City go into the game on a five-match winning streak after coming out on top in both legs of their Champions League last-four clash against PSG.
The latter came on Tuesday night so they’ll also have a day’s extra recovery time than Chelsea.
Widening the picture, that gave them a 33th win in their last 36 matches: a remarkable effort from a remarkable team.
Chelsea still have top four to nail down
Chelsea fans now have two big dates in their diaries: the FA Cup final on May 15th and the Champions League final – against City – two weeks later.
But as well as those two showpiece events, they need to wrap up their place in the top four.
Going into the weekend, they’re three in front of West Ham and seven clear of Liverpool, who have a game in hand.
But they can’t count their chickens just yet as their final four Premier League games are pretty tough: this one, home to Arsenal, home to Leicester and away to Aston Villa.
Arsenal and Leicester are both better on the road and those two Cup finals are bound to cause distractions. No-one would want to miss a Champions League final so will tackles be just a little less robust?
However, the mood in the Chelsea camp is through the roof after knocking out Real Madrid with a deserved 2-0 victory on Wednesday night.
Thomas Tuchel has done a superb job since coming in and, of course, he’s already got a win over Pep thanks to that 1-0 FA Cup semi-final victory courtesy of Hakim Ziyech’s 55th-minute strike.
One of the bizarre things about this season’s table is that the top three have lost a combined 14 games at home but just three on the road.
City have lost three on their own patch and drawn twice so the lack of fans has clearly had an effect on everyone.
For this one Manchester City are 2.01/1 to gain a 13th home Premier League win of the campaign while Chelsea are 4.47/2 to secure a 10th away victory.
But the bet I like here is The Draw at 3.55.
The FA Cup semi-final clash was tight and it’s hard to see this being anything different.
Tuchel has yet to suffer defeat on the road since taking over in January and his organisational skills can help keep that record intact.
City know this isn’t do-or-die and a draw wouldn’t be the worst result for either with that Champions League final on the horizon.
It’s very unusual to see Under 2.5 goals the favourite in a Man City game but it’s clearly so on Saturday.
Unders is 1.738/11 while Overs is 2.285/4.
Starting with that 1-0 Wembley semi, four of City’s last six games have featured fewer than three goals so those quotes are justified.
From a Chelsea point of view the bias is even stronger: Under 2.5 has landed in each of their last seven games!
It’s a similar story for Chelsea and Both teams to Score. Since they won 4-1 at Crystal Palace, BTTS has been the outcome in just one of their last seven.
I’m not a big fan of goals here but those looking for a scorer option should certainly look at Kevin De Bruyne.
The Belgian has scored in each of his last three Premier League games against Chelsea while he’s netted six goals in his last 10 Man City matches.
De Bruyne to score in a draw is 16.6 on the Bet Builder market.
Obviously, it’s not clear how Pep will shuffle his pack. However, De Bruyne was rested for City’s Premier League win at Crystal Palace last weekend and came off with eight minutes left against PSG so that suggests he could be being primed to start against the Blues.
Opta Stat
Chelsea have kept a clean sheet in 11 of their 15 Premier League games under Thomas Tuchel – the most shutouts recorded by any manager in their first 15 games in the competition’s history. The Blues are looking to win three league games in a row without conceding for the first time since November 2017.
Source: Betfair Premier League
