Away, away, away…

We’ve had 5 home games in all competitions so far this season from a fixture list of 7 and now it’s OUR turn to ‘hit the road’, as we face the first of 6 away matches from our next 7.

Early KO this afternoon (12:30pm BST); I had intended to finish and release this blog-posting yesterday afternoon so straight to it…

v Chelsea

Stamford Bridge

Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:

(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game, which was in the League Cup fixture: 7/11).

Pep was a little cagey in his pre-match press conference when asked which players could be involved tomorrow; stating that some of those recently injured had just returned to training and would be assessed this morning, whilst others had not yet been released from the treatment room. No names mentioned as to who hasn’t yet recovered from injury enough to resume training but of those recently out, only Laporte, Stones & Rodri have been seen at the City Football Academy this week and, so…

Fluid 4-1-5-0 / 4-6-0 / 4-3-3:

______________________________________________

 

Grealish__________________________________Jesus

____________________Foden_____________________

________De Bruyne_____________Silva____________

 

__________________Fernandinho_________________

Cancelo_________________________________Walker

 

___________Laporte____________Dias_____________

 

 

____________________Ederson___________________

Subs: Steffen, Wilson-Esbrand, Ake, Stones, Rodri, Palmer, Mahrez, Sterling, Torres.

Ederson is the easy one to predict – he has the gloves for this one.

I’m going to suggest that one of our returning players will start tomorrow and if I’m correct, that should see a back-4 of Joao, Aymeric, Ruben & Kyle.

It was notable that our skipper was left out of our midweek, domestic cup game and has, therefore, a full week’s rest / preparation under his belt while his defensive midfield colleague was being assessed / brought back after a brief injury. Therefore, I’m going for Fernandinho to start in that deep-lying position in a few hours’ time.

Ahead of the Brazilian is a fluid, interchangeable and rather impressive-looking 5 of Jack, Kevin, Phil, Bernardo & Gabriel; all of whom are capable of playing in any of those positions shown.

‘Zack is back’ and is on standby as our reserve stopper; Josh, Nathan & John are the likely defenders in ‘the 9’. Rodders, Cole, Riyad, Raheem & Ferran are the midfield / wing / forward personnel on the side.

Notable absences:

-       Benjamin Mendy – Suspended by the club until further notice.

-       Oleksandr Zinchenko – Presumably, still injured.

-       Ilkay Gundogan – Presumably, still injured.

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

That looks good to me.

Room for error in my prediction for this one comes in the form of Pep having-presumably studied Chelsea’s last few games in very fine detail for most of the week and, therefore, he may well spring a surprise with the formation; possibly in terms of how the defenders set up and/or possibly deploying Joao Cancelo in that reverse wing-back / midfield role. All will be revealed very shortly, of course…

Result? Obvious statement alert! This is gonna be a toughie.

Simply put, I’m going to go with my instinct that’s been with me for a few days now – it’s a draw from me.

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

Prediction: Win

Result: Won

There was no pre-match blog-posting for this game due to limited team information being released in the hours leading up to the game; largely caused by players being tested for Covid-19 during an outbreak at that moment in time…

Expected weather conditions during the game: A weird combination of dull…but warm. 19C / 66F is the early afternoon temperature and nothing much else doin’ really.