A very tough game.

However,the way we are playing individually and collectively at the moment. I think we will win. 1-0 Chelsea.

Since the Arab purchase we have been sh*t against City. In total we played 18 games in all competitions, lost 10, drew 3 and won 5. However City is not looking impressive at all this season, just stop Aguero from scoring as he loves to score against us.

If you stop Aguero that's the key to beating City imo. They rely heavily on him for goals.

Lot more to em than just Aguerro. De bruyne a big threat, maybe toure having a burst.

We will be defending and playing on the counter, but that can suit us. We will need our defensive passing to be sharp.

Lets not be too overambitious here. A draw would be a fantastic result for me.

So i think we should focus on keeping it tight at the back first and foremost and then look to hit them on the counter when we can. I rewatched a littlebit of the Spurs game and for me a big problem at the start was the a big gap between midfield and defence and thats how Tottenham got their goal aswell. Dembele turned Kante away and passed into Alli in loads of space which meant Luiz had to step out to stop him, which in turn gave Eriksen the ball in a great position and that was that.

Just keep it tight and leave Costa and Hazard lurking up top with Pedro helping the midfield out. We should start pressing them when they reach 30-40 meters away from our goal and not before that. We know how to press really well now so i feel lke that should be a good tactic for this game.

 

A point and we would be ecstatic.

Don't think that will happen sadly but regardless it will only be a few points which we can make up again. No big deal regardless.

They are the one's that need to win, a draw would only suit us. After City we have a fairly "easier" line of fixtures perhaps the easiest Christmas run out of the top four.

City clear favourites with the bookies, a win for city twice as likely as a win or even a draw for us apparently...wonder why this is the conclusion, we are by far the best in form team in the league and we have scored 19 to concede 1, quite prolific by anyone's standards, seeing Debby downers on this thread again, as with every single game after Hull, thought the team have earned a bit of trust by now, can't understand the mindset of a fan that starts out expecting a loss every game, can't be much fun. 

Edited November 29, 20169 yr by DonAntonio

1 hour ago, Chelsbear said:

A point and we would be ecstatic.

Don't think that will happen sadly but regardless it will only be a few points which we can make up again. No big deal regardless.

Yep. As long as we don't get trashed and put in a good performance I will be happy. City and Liverpool have some tricky fixtures in December whilst ours look easy on paper so I'm not particularly bothered about this game. The truth is their team is head and shoulders above ours.

anyway still secretly hoping for a win. Come on Chelsea 

On 11/28/2016 at 15:20, wallosh said:

No, you are just being realistic! Honestly I won't be pissed if we lose this match because our team have already surpassed my expectations for this month.

how is that realistic? on what basis you think that not winning would be the most probable outcome? we are above them in the table, we won our last 7 games whereas City drew 3 and lost once (against Spurs which we just beat). fact points that we are currently on a better form. thus, if we are being realistic we should be confident that we are going to win this

i think you are confusing realistic with pessimistic

This game will be a piece of cake for us. They have no pace in their team, we'll run rings round them.

4-0

Yes, you heard me.

7 hours ago, magichat said:

how is that realistic? on what basis you think that not winning would be the most probable outcome? we are above them in the table, we won our last 7 games whereas City drew 3 and lost once (against Spurs which we just beat). fact points that we are currently on a better form. thus, if we are being realistic we should be confident that we are going to win this

i think you are confusing realistic with pessimistic

Thank you! 

7 hours ago, Blueblur said:

This game will be a piece of cake for us. They have no pace in their team, we'll run rings round them.

4-0

Yes, you heard me.

4-0????? Bit OTT. City have no pace? Sterling, Navas, Nolito, Aguero? Don't they have pace?

I think it will be a tight game.

I certainly agree that we shouldn't go there trying for a draw Mourinho style.

Just play our football, our confidence is high and I'm sure pretty sure D.Luiz can take care of Aguero if he plays how he has been playing. 

I'm going for a 0-1, 1-2 to the blues. Diego is going to give John Stones nightmares. 

k unt aggro scares me, can not see him being kept out for 90 mins so we will need to score and i think we will

Edited November 29, 20169 yr by luckywerthers

I have no doubt we will score, when was the last time they kept a clean sheet? Barvo maybe the best passing GK in the world, but he's no Joe Hart comes to shot stopping. If we roll back the tape for the last few games, we had chances to score and Hart was at his best to stop us. I think we will play our normal game, this is not the time to be 'afraid' after 7 wins on a trot, and that's not Conte's character I believe. We certainly don't want be counting the points at this stage of the season.Win would be great but no means we are going to walk to the title , draw is very good, if we happen to lose, it's not the end of the world either. There are 4-5 games coming up before the new year, plenty of games to pick up points. 

We'll thrash them 1 - 0.

11 hours ago, bradgoundry said:

4-0????? Bit OTT. City have no pace? Sterling, Navas, Nolito, Aguero? Don't they have pace?

Who? Navas and Sterling are a joke double act and Nolito will get sent off. 

Aguero is the only one who might cause trouble but Luiz won't let that happen. Revised prediction:

5-0 

I'm actually more afraid of playing Sunderland away than going to the Etihad TBH.
I think we'll beat City, in fact, I reckon Guardiola will be more worried about us than Conte will about them.  They've a fantastic side and shouldnt be under estimated at any cost bu tI think the confidence and more importantly the heart and desire they showed against Spurs showed this team is capable of coming from a goal down and winning a very tough game.
Ideally we'll take the lead and force City out, you only have to look at some of their draws recently and terrible defending to realise you will get a chance off this team you must make sure you finish it and that you're still in the game.
The city team will probably be
-----------------Bravo----------------
Sagna--Stones--Otamendi--Clichy
-------------Fernando ----------------
Silva-----KDB------Toure-----Nolito
---------------Aguero----------------
Sterling is doubtful for the game as he came off but he can easily slot into the starting XI.
I think we can beat them anyway and I dont think they have the players to deploy a press like Spurs or Pool, cant wait for it.
If we win at the Etihad too, its a statement win and will throw down a marker, I still think we'll probably get derailed by f**king Sunderland though. :o

No way Fernadinho will be on the bench for this.

If you stop Aguero that's the key to beating City imo. They rely heavily on him for goals.

If we focus on Aguero alone, Debruyne and Gundogan will have a nice time against us.

22 hours ago, magichat said:

how is that realistic? on what basis you think that not winning would be the most probable outcome? we are above them in the table, we won our last 7 games whereas City drew 3 and lost once (against Spurs which we just beat). fact points that we are currently on a better form. thus, if we are being realistic we should be confident that we are going to win this

i think you are confusing realistic with pessimistic

I believe there is more chance of City winning because I respect Pep. I know he is not the type of manager that will easily allow a rival to beat his team especially when his team his playing at home. There game in the Champions League proves it!

 

I meant their game against Barcelona at the Etihad proves it.

Who cares that they beat Barca, it's hardly a barometer when they've been fairly average the last load of games.

We won't change our mind-set and I'm sure attacking wise we'll be a massive threat to them. And someone mentioned there squad is better than ours, really?? I don't think so. 

I'm pretty confident we'll get the three points from this game, keep the faith.

1 hour ago, wallosh said:

If we focus on Aguero alone, Debruyne and Gundogan will have a nice time against us.

I'm not saying only concentrate on him but if we stop him I don't think they'll score.

On 28/11/2016 at 09:49, Beerqueen said:

 

I am actually going to ask now, having wondered for ages - how the hell do you come up with this?  Is it some sort of Paul the octopus type thing?  

If it was a Paul the Octopus type of thing, it would actually be accurate in some form ha ha.

Bring it on.

can see perhaps a minor tweak to more of a 3-5-2 with Pedro or perhaps even Willian adding midfield numbers (Chalobah anyone?). Depends how much respect conte gives them and my guess is he will stick with the winning formula.

I'm hoping for a win, time to find out if we've really got the goods.

anyone noticed that the press keep going on about 3-4-3 but our recent form also coincides with the dropping of Ivan from the defence. Just saying.