Manchester City vs Chelsea Preview

February 15, 2014
By: Deke Hardman

FA-cup

Saturday afternoon’s match at the Etihad Stadium sees Premier League title favourites Manchester City and Chelsea face off in the fifth round of the FA Cup.

The two sides met in Manchester less than two weeks ago, with Jose Mourinho’s men inflicting a first home league defeat for City since they have been under the guidance of Manuel Pellegrini.

That was Mourinho’s seventh victory from nine against Pellegrini – the man who he replaced at Real Madrid, stretching back to when the pair battled in La Liga in the three campaigns previous to this.

The hosts, whose game against Sunderland was called off on Wednesday, have failed to score in their last two games, and remain without top scorer Sergio Aguero and Fernandinho, though Samir Nasri is in contention after missing the last five weeks with a knee problem, and fellow midfielder Javi Garcia is also available after injury.

Alvaro Negredo is favourite to open the scoring at 7.0 (6/1) with a variety of firms ahead of Edin Dzeko, who is widely available at 7.5 (13/2),

City are favourites to win the match at 2.25 (5/4) with William Hill, with Chelsea 3.6 (13/5) with the same firm while the draw can be backed at 3.6 (13/5) with Bet 365.

The visitors, who go in to the game on the back of Tuesday evening’s 1-1 draw with West Bromwich Albion, are unbeaten in their last fifteen games over ninety minutes, with their only defeat since their 3-2 loss at Stoke City coming after extra-time in the League Cup at Sunderland.

Defensive duo John Terry and Gary Cahill look set to miss out so Branislav Ivanovic, who was the match winner at the Etihad twelve days ago, could move into the centre.

Fernando Torres and Samuel Eto’o can each be backed widely at 9.0 (8/1) to get the first goal of the game, with top scorer Eden Hazard a 10.5 (19/2) shot with Bet Victor.

With the margins so tight, and City out for revenge you may be tempted to take advantage of Labrokes offer of 4.1 (31/10) for the hosts to win by one goal, which has been enough to separate the sides in six of their past eight encounters.

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