Manchester City vs. Chelsea: Key Issues That Will Shape Premier League Match
Manchester City are in serious danger of laying claim to the title of the worst good team in professional football.
The Premier League's defending champions are winless in their last three matches in all competitions, and they are one very unlikely Martin Demichelis equalizer away from a three-game losing streak.
Most troubling are the ways that City are dropping these points. Letting Mame Diouf scamper 70 yards untroubled to score a winner at the Etihad. Defending with resolve for 89 minutes only to see Jerome Boateng graffiti the work at the death.
City are not a bad team, not by any measure. But these are the sorts of things that tend to happen to bad teams much more often than they do to good teams.
What City need right now is a slump-buster, say, a match with Queens Park Rangers at the Etihad.
What City have, though, is a date with perfect, Premier League-leading Chelsea.
Here are a few of the issues City will have to manage in order to turn their recent fortunes around against the Blues.
Manuel Pellegrini's Feud with Jose Mourinho
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The tension between City boss Manuel Pellegrini and Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, unlike so many trumped-up media creations, is a real thing.
Of course, Mourinho behaves this way with just about everybody. It is also vital to remember not to take too much of what Mourinho says seriously. His latest pot shot at Pep Guardiola was banal, even for a self-styled agitator like Mourinho.
As noted by Richard Jolly for ESPNFC, Pellegrini actually has Mourinho to thank for City's Premier League title last season. Chelsea had little to play for at Anfield last spring, but their 2-0 victory over Liverpool put City back into the pole position in the title race.
"Pellegrini is seen as the man who puts fires out, Mourinho as the arsonist," Jolly wrote. The wisest course for Pellegrini as this match approaches is to ignore the subject of Mourinho outright.
Never roll around in the mud with a pig. You get filthy, and the pig loves it.
City's Recent Troubles with Chelsea in the Premier League
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City did beat Chelsea once last season, in the fifth round of the FA Cup. Arguably, that win was subtraction by addition for City. Chelsea fell out of that competition early enough to save their legs for other more important matches. City had to play on.
As for the two Premier League matches these two sides played last season, City would just as soon forget them both.
City memorably coughed up a probable draw at Stamford Bridge when Matija Nastasic and Joe Hart conspired to send then-Chelsea man Fernando Torres in on a breakaway even he could not botch.
Later in the season, Chelsea asphyxiated City at the Etihad, leaving with one of Mourinho's patented 1-0 victories.
Last season saw City scoring nearly at will. This season, City have yet to score more than three goals in any match. The Sky Blues were blanked by Bayern Munich mid-week, and also failed to score at home against Stoke.
Mourinho would love nothing better than to extend City's scoreless doldrums.
What to Do with Yaya Toure?
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Would Pellegrini dare drop Yaya Toure from the XI against Chelsea? Once unthinkable, the idea that Pellegrini might conclude that City are better off without Toure on the pitch is gaining traction.
Toure's season is off to a terribly slow start, and his no-show against Bayern Munich this week has drawn significant criticism. Most of it is fair, too.
"With Yaya Toure looking short of full fitness, Bayern were able to dominate midfield," noted Sam Sheringham for BBC Sport.
Where Sheringham saw a player not at full strength, though, The Guardian's Jamie Jackson saw a man not fully engaged in his profession:
"(W)hat the Allianz Arena witnessed was the plodding, slumbering Toure who looks – and is – only half-interested.
When Robert Lewandowksi broke after 13 minutes from Toure’s section of the pitch, the 31-year-old decided against chasing and so allowed the forward to break towards the area before a desperate intervention from the City rearguard thwarted the Pole.
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Toure's desultory performance was only underscored by his warm exchange with opposing manager Pep Guardiola after the match. City's gutting defeat did not seem to leave a mark on Toure's psyche.
City have a handful of talented internationals at their disposal behind Toure. If the big Ivorian cannot summon up 90 minutes of effort for £220,000 a week, maybe Pellegrini should give Toure's cover a chance to show him what a professional effort looks like.
Formation Considerations
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Depending on your optimistic or pessimistic tendencies, Pellegrini's deployment of a 4-5-1 formation in the past two matches has either worked terrifically or not at all.
Stevan Jovetic's injury coupled with Alvaro Negredo's departure leaves City with only two healthy strikers. And referring to Sergio Aguero as "healthy" always feels like referring to a Hollywood starlet's marriage as "stable."
Faced with two straight dicey matches away from home, Pellegrini sent conservative XI's out against Arsenal and Bayern Munich. It seemed like City were playing for one point in each of those matches. And, until the 89th minute against Bayern, it very nearly came to pass that way.
Now Pellegrini has to choose an XI for the home supporters, whose last date with City ended early with a stiff handshake at the door as City lost to Stoke. The Sky Blues fans are not apt to be satisfied with a craven, defensive draw with Chelsea.
Will Pellegrini risk fragility by playing Aguero and Edin Dzeko together? Can he really afford not to?
The Fear of Losing the Title Before September Ends
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City and Chelsea will have played five of 38 Premier League matches after their upcoming match is over. So much of the season will still remain, and yet a Chelsea win in this match could all but doom City to revising their goal from defending the league title to securing a second runner-up finish in three seasons.
A Chelsea victory would put the Blues eight points clear of City after five matches. City have some experience with pulling back eight-point leads, to be sure, but this version of Mourinho's Chelsea does not look nearly as vulnerable as the Manchester United side City tracked down in 2011-12.
And Chelsea are miles better than last season's Liverpool side, as they proved last spring.
Even a draw here does not do much for City's title hopes. They must play to win, which unfortunately is exactly what Mourinho most wants them to do.
City's entire season might not hang in the balance in this match. Maybe it just feels that way.
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