Chelsea vs Manchester City match thread here

Chelsea vs Manchester City kick off at 8pm live coverage on skysports 1 and bbc radio 5 live.

Frank Lampard is hoping to be recalled to make his 350th premier league start for Chelsea.

Bosingwa is a doubt and McEachran is still sidelined for Chelsea.

Man City's Micah Richards could miss out with a calf injury. Pablo Zabaleta is fit and could replace left back Kolarov.

Chelsea have turned a corner winning their last two league games scoring 6 goals. Man City have been unstoppable so far and remain unbeaten in the premiership.

A win tonight for Chelsea would put the London club in 3rd place. A draw would see Chelsea leap frog Arsenal back into 4th place a head on goal difference. If Chelsea lose AVB's team will stay in 5th place. Manchester City hope to keep their unbeaten run and a win would see Man City restore their 5 point gap at the top of the English premier league. But if Man City lose Mancini's team will stay top two points clear of rivals Man United. A draw would see Man City have a 3 point lead over Man Utd.

Team news:

Chelsea

4-3-3

Cech
Bosingwa
Ivanovic
Terry
Cole
Ramires
Romeu
Meireles
Sturridge
Drogba
Mata

Subs: Turnbull, Ferreira, Mikel, Lampard, Malouda, Kalou & Torres.

Man City

4-2-3-1

Hart
Zabaleta
Lescott
Kompany
Clichy
Yaya Toure
Barry
Milner
Aguero
Silva
Balotelli

Subs: Pantilimon, Savic, Kolo Toure, De Jong, Johnson, Nasri & Dzeko.

Referee: Mark Clattenburg

 

I remember everyone (me included) expecting city to thrash the scousers, but they flopped and were lucky to leave with a point.

I think we should probably accept that we're going to concede tonight, but the key is scoring while we're still in the game, because City were dominating the scousers until they scored a rather fortuitous goal. That disrupted their rhythm and, from their, the scousers dominated the game.

I'm cautiously optmistic about this one. After seeing them thump Spurs and Utd, we really have nothing to lose tonight.

 

Official Lineups

Chelsea: Cech, Bosingwa, Ivanovic, Terry, Cole, Ramires, Romeu, Meireles, Sturridge, Drogba, Mata. Subs: Turnbull, Lampard, Torres, Mikel, Malouda, Ferreira, Kalou.
Man City: Hart, Zabaleta, Lescott, Kompany, Clichy, Milner, Toure Yaya, Barry, Silva, Aguero, Balotelli. Subs: Pantilimon, Dzeko, Johnson, Savic, Nasri, Toure, De Jong.

 

Nervous but looking forward to this one

 

Should be an exciting match. Looking forward to see Mata vs Silva. Hope Mata comes out on top.

 

Key point will be Mata vs Zabaleta, glad Richards isn't play, could be our key to victory, COME ON YOU CHELS!!

 

I think alot of City's hopes tonight rest on Ballotelli having a good game. When he is good he is awesome but if he isn't it is like being a man down and Chelsea isn't a team you can afford to have a passenger.

Romeu keeping mature and staying on Silva could be quite important too.

Tense waiting on this one.

 

S h i t

 

Let me rephrase that to just nervous.

 

We'll score when we want...we're Man City we score when we want!

 

Well I expected us to concede. Need to take any chance that we get while it's still 1-0 though (stating the obvious)

 

That penalty shout was almost an exact replica of the penalty Tottenham got against Stoke on Saturday ... except this one wasn't given!

 

Silva was unlucky not to get a penalty there. Though i still think he should have shot instead of trying to beat a man.

I think we have been unlucky not to get another goal so far though and i think we will need one because i can see Chelsea scoring

 

Meireles 1-1!

 

This

 

Get in!

Game on!

 

Get in there Meireles great cross from Sturridge. 1-1.

 

You are not so bad as i thought you would be, to be fair.

 

In the second half we need to play like we did the last 20mins, we can't do a repeat of the first 20minutes, that was ****ing awful and we was lucky not to be 3-0 down, need to do what they done to us and press em hard, can see lamps coming on for meireles at half time unfortunately due to meireles is going to get sent off at this rate. Good last 20minutes though and after the first 15mins i woulda took 1-1 at half time. On another note what about YAYA TOURE the ****ing ****, disgraceful prick shoulda been sent off, kicking matas one thing but slapping him? ****ing dirty prick

 

Game is lucky not have a red so far. Yaya has been lucky and Meireles has made 2 bad tackles and 1 other foul. Can't have too many left in him.

I think Mata has been a shade of his usual self though tonight and hasn't produced anything close to his usual level of performance.