AMONG England’s biggest and richest football clubs, Manchester City and Chelsea face off in an encounter that will pit two sides desperately struggling for form, against each other in the late game today.
Over the last two decades, these sides have won the league title 13 times. Man City, more dominant in recent seasons, have claimed eight crowns in that period, while the Blues have a quintet of league trophies to show, garnered between 2005 and 2017.
Such is the pedigree of Chelsea and Man City and the huge investment outlays by both clubs that they are expected to challenge for the English League and Champions League titles each and every year.
As things stand, heading into this weekend, Chelsea are fourth on the Premiership table with 40 points from 22 matches. Their hosts are fifth and two points adrift.
In the context of having a go at the title, Chelsea are no fewer than 10 points off leaders Liverpool, who also happen to have a game in hand, albeit against their bitter Merseyside rivals Everton.
But that’s not to say that either of these clubs are not in with a chance of winning the league.
On the contrary, they have a mathematical chance of triumphing – for City, it’s a case of chasing a fifth consecutive league title, which would break the record of four that they themselves set last season.
For Chelsea, it would be rich reward for Enzo Maresca, who quit Leicester City in the off-season to move to Stamford Bridge after guiding the Foxes to the Premier League last May.
In these big, hyped-up, super-heavyweight clashes, history has taught us that form coming into the game all too often means nothing, or little, given that they raise their performance levels on the day and make a mockery of just how poorly they might have been playing prior to doing battle.
If today’s fixture were to play out in such a fashion, it would not surprise many.
Both sides are laden with supreme talent, expensively assembled and hand-picked from all corners of the globe.
Man City, for many, will get the nod today, perhaps emerging with a narrow victory – the sides separated by not more than a goal.
Pep Guardiola saw his squad throw away a two-goal lead in the Champions League game at Paris Saint Germain in midweek.
And the Spaniard admitted they were weak as they crashed to a 4-2 defeat in Paris.
It certainly doesn’t exude confidence going into a high-profile fixture like this.
Chelsea, for their part, are coming off a comfortable 3-1 league win over Wolves last weekend.
But that was their only league victory in their last six outings – that’s how sloppy they have been.
Maresca’s side at one time this season were playing wonderful football but not consistently enough to figure as a genuine threat to the front-runners: Liverpool, Arsenal and surprise package Nottingham Forest – both the latter joint level on points and trailing the Reds by six points, having played a game more.
Guardiola will be hoping Jack Grealish continues with the form he showed in Paris, where he scored and weighed in with a decent performance despite seeing only limited time on the pitch this season.
It was reported earlier in the week that a few clubs were interested in acquiring the England international, who has been out of sorts this season.
And, Guardiola endured another injury setback after Ruben Dias was substituted in the Champions League game midweek.
It was not immediately clear, at the time of writing, how long the Portuguese central defender might be out of action.
Cole Palmer, Moises Caicedo and Noni Madueke have been key to Chelsea’s fourth place thus far, and Maresca will be hoping for more of the same.
Indeed, these lads will know City are as vulnerable as they have ever been in the last 20 years, and this does present an opportunity for them to strike while the iron is hot.
But one feels that Man City’s home ground advantage could sway the tie in their favour, however marginal that might be.