Manchester City could virtually secure the 2021-22 Premier League title with 16 games to play if the defending champions can beat second-place Chelsea at home on Saturday.
Pep Guardiola’s side have built a 10-point lead over their nearest rivals thanks to an 11-match league winning run that has coincided with Chelsea losing points of late with six draws and one defeat in the same span.
After a strong start to the campaign, Chelsea’s momentum was interrupted for a long period by a combination of COVID-19 cases and injuries. Although the reigning European champions have fallen behind, a win at the Etihad Stadium would revive their title hopes just days after advancing to the Carabao Cup final.
Chelsea had Man City’s number last year after manager Thomas Tuchel took over from the Blues in January 2021. In a period of just a few weeks, he guided the Blues to a Champions League final victory over City and a knockout victory in the FA Cup semi-final.
Manchester City took some level of revenge this season with a 1-0 victory at Stamford Bridge in September on Matchday 6. But the ultimate reward would be to virtually eliminate Chelsea from another Premier League run. Chelsea last won the EPL in 2016-17; Man City have three league wins since then and a fourth may not be far behind if the result plays out on Saturday.
Sporting News follows the match live and provides live score updates, match commentary and highlights as they happen.
| 1 HOUR | 2H | Final | |
| city man | — | — | — |
| chelsea | — | — | — |
(All times Eastern)
Here’s something to kill time before the game: Rio Ferdinand sat down with Kevin De Bruyne:
“It’s a six-point game. The difference can be 13, 10 or 7 points. That’s a big difference.”
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???? Working with Grealish@DeBruyneKev ahead of Man City’s top of the table clash against Chelsea ???????? #RioMeets– River Fernando (@rioferdy5) January 15, 2022
High praise from Pep Guardiola, who says he learns from Chelsea’s Thomas Tuchel: “He makes world football better.”
Man City boss Pep Guardiola has been full of admiration for Chelsea’s Thomas Tuchel ahead of this weekend’s table-top clash ???? pic.twitter.com/TKodzFgsH3
– Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) January 14, 2022
Projected Man City vs. Chelsea
Manchester City will have no players available due to COVID-19, but the club will not release names. We’ll know when the lineups come out. The center back is available again and is at AFCON 2022 with Algeria.
The day of the match we knew that it is out with a bang after missing two games due to COVID-19.
31-Ederson (GK) — 2-Kyle Walker, 3-Ruben Dias (c), 14-Aymeric Laporte, 27-Joao Cancelo — 8-Ilkay Gundogan, 16-Rodri, 20-Bernardo Silva — 17-Kevin De Bruyne, 7-Raheem Sterling, 47-Phil Foden
13-Zack Steffen (GK), 5-John Stones, 6-Nathan Ake, 25-Fernandinho, 10-Jack Grealish, 80-Cole Palmer, 9-Gabriel Jesus, 37-Kayky
Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel has no new injury concerns to deal with, which is good news for the Blues. But the team will still be missing Reece James (hamstring), Trevoh Chalobah (hamstring), Ben Chilwell (torn ACL), Edouard Mendy (AFCON 2022) and Andreas Christensen (COVID-19). Depending on the system chosen, American Christian Pulisic could reprise his role at right back.
1-Kepa Arrizabalaga (GK) — 28-Cesar Azpilicueta, 6-Thiago Silva, 2-Antonio Rudiger — 10-Christian Pulisic, 5-Jorginho, 7-N’Golo Kante, 3-Marcos Alonso — 19-Mason Mount, 9 -Romelu Lukaku, 29-Kai Havertz
13-Marcus Bettinelli (GK), 31-Malang Sarr, 75-Lewis Hall, 12-Ruben Loftus-Cheek, 8-Mateo Kovacic, 17-Saul Niguez, 22-Hakim Ziyech, 20-Callum Hudson-Odoi, 11-Timo werner
How to watch Man City vs Chelsea
- Date: Saturday, January 15
- Hour: 7:30 a.m. Eastern Time
- Television channel: —
- Transmission: Peacock (subscribers only)
Saturday’s match between Man City and Chelsea from the Etihad will be shown exclusively on NBC’s premium streaming platform Peacock in the US.