Blue chews-daze: One of those dangerous scenarios or…

…an opportunity to take advantage.

Will our visitors be feeling the effects of the turmoil that continues to surround their turbulent club or will a change in manager, albeit a temporary one, give their players a lift?

I don’t like these games…

v Chelsea

Etihad Stadium

Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:

(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game: 9/11.

A very fluid 4-1-4-1 / 4-5-1 / 4-3-3 (occasional 3-6-1):

____________________Haaland____________________

__Doku_________________________________Cherki__

_________Silva(C)_________________Foden__________

_____________________Rodri_____________________

O’Reilly___________________________________Nunes

__________Gvardiol______________Dias(VC)__________

__________________Donnarumma_________________

Subs: Trafford, Lewis, Ake, Khusanov, Gray, Mukasa, Reijnders, McAidoo and Heskey.

Gigi in net.

Most of the back 4 could do with a rest and following this match they’ll get a full week off; with some perhaps not even taking part in next Saturday’s 3^rd-round F.A. Cup fixture. That being the case, I think Guardiola will ask his trusted first pick defence to simply, ‘go again’. (ERROR WRITING THAT AND THANK YOU TO A FRIEND FOR POINTING THAT OUT. I THINK IT WAS PARTLY DOWN TO ME NOT PLANNING A PRE-MATCH BLOG POSTING FOR OUR GAME AGAINST BRIGHTON ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT).

So, that’ll be Nico-O-, Josko, Ruben and Matheus all holding the line ahead of their keeper.

Our manager said there was a need to ease Rodri back slowly and carefully following his return to action in midweek and that suggests a start against Chelsea just wouldn’t be risked. However, what do we do? Who do we put there? Gonzalez may well not have recovered from a knock to the knee just 3 days ago, I don’t know, and there’s no Mateo Kovacic either, of course. John Stones has played there before and done well but he’s out too. I suppose he could try Matheus Nunes there and put either Lewis or Khusanov at right-wing back but I’m going for Rodders to start this evening (5:30pm KO GMT). 🤷‍♂️

I’m putting Jeremy, Bernardo, Phil and Rayan-C- as attacking midfielders / wingers all behind Erling.

James continues as reserve stopper before a likely start next weekend; Rico, Nathan and Abdukodir make up three defenders on the bench. Three midfielders come in the shape of Charlie, Divine and Tijjani, while Ryan and Reigan give us two wide / attacking options in ‘the 9’. That is a very young bench.

Notable absences:

- Marcus Bettinelli – Not selected.

- Stefan Ortega – Not selected.

- Rayan Ait-Nouri – Away on international duty.

- Kalvin Phillips – Not selected.

- John Stones – Out with a thigh injury but it was said on 12^th December that the England defender isn’t expected to be missing for long. It has been almost a month now after we were given the impression that it wasn’t a major issue. 🤷‍♂️

- Mateo Kovacic – Recovering from secondary surgery to clean up some calcification in his ankle. Expected return is around February 2026.

- Nico Gonzalez – Presumed injured with a knee issue after a first half knock last Thursday, where the Spanish Under-21 international was replaced at half time.

- Oscar Bobb – Out with a muscular / hamstring issue. Unknown return date.

- Savinho – Out with a yet undisclosed leg injury. All I know, as I prep this, is that his manager has said that it, “…doesn’t look good”.

- Omar Marmoush – Away on international duty.

Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?

Yep.

Result?

Last Thursday night was a game of half-chances and missed opportunities, as well as facing a side every bit as tough as I thought they would be. That’s only the fourth time we’ve failed to score this season in all competitions.

Some of our players just didn’t rise to the challenge of facing a side who continue to remain unbeaten at home, while others suffered injuries. 🙄 I suppose all things considered, we should be grateful for the point. It was one of those rare, crackin’ 0-0’ers though, I thought.

As for today’s opponents, I was skim-reading last season’s pre-match blog posting and back in January 2025 I was writing about a sense of chaos and confusion surrounding Chelsea. Almost one year on, nothing appears to have changed that much if at all, albeit they’re currently without a permanent manager.

Before they lost their manager a few days ago, I was thinking ahead to this blog posting and was most certainly going to write what I often do about today’s visitors, which is that I can never quite read them as a team. One game they seem to blow sides away with good football and the next they perform so poorly. It couldn’t be summed up better than by their last 6 results in the league, which reads: L D W D L D.

I had already decided before the sacking that this was going to be a City win but now some nerves have taken over, I have to be honest. We’re still 9 games unbeaten with 8 wins and a draw and we’re at home against a side whose results are all over the place, so there are very few reasons to be jittery really.

However, the one big reason for having doubts about getting all 3, very vital points is the one that I’ve just mentioned – just how will their players react to losing their gaffer?

Focus on us, would be Pep’s words of wisdom, and that’s very good advice.

We’re winning, or grabbing a share of the points at least, but we’re doing so by not playing particularly well once again; following a run of fairly good performances, I thought. Is fatigued an issue? Well, our manager has chosen to make very few tweaks to his side in recent weeks so perhaps so. I’ve noticed Nico O’Reilly in particular appears to be suffering in recent games.

I’m gonna do it – I’m actually going to let that Doubting Thomas voice in my head win and call this one just how I see it, which is a draw.

Prove me wrong, Blues…but in the right way of course. 🙏

Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result:

Prediction: Draw

Result: Won

(Pre-match blog posting from that game)

Expected weather conditions during the game: The thermometer might read 0C as the game kicks off but the forecasted ‘feels like’ is around -4C. In addition, I’ve seen a couple of weather reports which suggests that we might see some light white stuff falling over the Etihad during the match. 🌨️🥶🧣🧥🧤🍵🥧🍺⚽