🔊The big game of the opening day of the Premier League is the meeting between Chelsea and Manchester City on August 18 at Stamford Bridge. Bookmakers believe that there is a decent chance that Chelsea could surprise everyone, as City’s odds for victory are close to 2. Although City are still the favourites, the idea that they could drop points is not out of the question. It is also important to note that City could be more ready for the season since they have already played a competitive match against Manchester United in the Community Shield.
H2H
Despite a difficult season last year, Chelsea posed a real challenge to Pep Guardiola’s side in every game. In the FA Cup semi-finals, they only lost 0-1 and put on a strong performance, while in the league, they managed to take points from City twice (4-4 and 1-1). Interestingly, Raheem Sterling scored in both of those games against his former club. He also found the back of the net in a recent friendly, although Chelsea lost that game 2-4.
Chelsea
Chelsea is one of the most unpredictable teams in the Premier League. The club is constantly changing coaches and signing young players. Among all the signings, Pedro Neto and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall stand out. They are good, but not big stars.
Despite Chelsea’s wealth, top players have not yet been keen to join the club, although there are rumours of Victor Osimhen. A goalscoring striker would help, especially since Chelsea have only won one pre-season game, but their weak defence could be the bigger problem. The only player currently injured is Reece James, who will be out for a while and would have missed the first game through suspension anyway.
Manchester City
Last season, Manchester City made history by winning their fourth consecutive Premier League title, something no team had ever done before. They once again edged out Arsenal, although the Gunners pushed them to the last round. Despite this success, City did not make any significant signings, with Savio being their only addition, although he is not considered a major reinforcement. However, they did suffer a significant loss in Julian Alvarez, who, although not a regular starter, was a versatile player who brought quality to several positions.
City’s season started earlier than Chelsea’s, as they faced Manchester United in the Community Shield. They won the match on penalties, gaining revenge for their FA Cup defeat. Unfortunately, Rodri will miss the first round, with Guardiola confirming that he has not been in training and is not yet ready for the game. Another major blow for City is the injury to Oscar Bobb, who assisted on the equaliser in the Community Shield but recently broke his leg in training and will be out for a long time.
Goal Predictions
In the Super Cup match, Guardiola’s side didn’t play to expectations, with many of their best players starting on the bench. But they will have to step up from the start in the Premier League as they have strong competition for the title this season. With Chelsea’s defensive issues, we expect a game with a lot of goals and think that City to score over 1.5 goals.
Corners
It is clear that City and Chelsea are currently on different levels. However, City did not win any of their games against Chelsea last season easily. We expect Chelsea to put up another fight this time around. They should be able to prevent City from completely controlling the game and create a few chances of their own, leading to a good number of corners. With that in mind, we are betting on Chelsea getting over 3.5 cornersa number they have reached in 10 of their last 11 Premier League games.
Pronostic Scores24 pour Chelsea Vs Manchester City
Despite Chelsea’s efforts, it is unlikely that they will be able to take points from City. At this point, the Blues look quite disorganized, and it is difficult to see how Enzo Maresca will find a solution for a positive result. Given the situation, we expect City to win in a game with many goals, so we predict a score of 1-3. Furthermore, we bet on City scoring over 1.5 goalsas Chelsea’s defence has looked very fragile during pre-season.
Will the prediction come true? We invite you to vote and leave a comment at the bottom of the page.
