Manchester City take on the visitors Chelsea in the round 25 match of English Premier League. The match will be played on Saturday, February 17th at Etihad Stadium (Manchester).
Manchester City intend to fully replicate the results of last season. The Citizens have long been considered a strong and wealthy club. Under Guardiola's management, they confidently established their dominance within Britain, so the 2023 double wasn't anything special in that regard. However, it was complemented by the long-awaited victory in the Champions League - a goal that the project, controlled by Middle Eastern sheikhs (as well as less prestigious projects like this season's breakthrough team Girona), and Pep himself had been striving for since his time with Barcelona. However, it was during his tenure at Bayern Munich that he failed to achieve the big-eared trophy, and he returned to the top of the world in Foggy Albion (especially considering that he later won the UEFA Super Cup and the Club World Cup). Now the only thing left is to replicate that success (especially since the grand club lost the English Super Cup without much of a fight and quickly exited the League Cup), and so far, things are going well. The Champions League playoffs have just begun - the English team played against Copenhagen and, without reaching maximum gear, won 3-1. Earlier in January, they edged past Tottenham 1-0 in the cup and overcame a slump in the Premier League, catching up with Liverpool, who had almost lost to Arsenal. In the last round, they calmly defeated Everton - just as Erling Haaland, who hadn't scored since the autumn, woke up and secured a brace.
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Chelsea can only rely on results in other tournaments. At the end of the month, the Blues will be contesting the title. After a penalty shootout against Newcastle (which wouldn't have happened if Moudrik hadn't seized the opportunity and equalized in the 90+ minute) and a resounding victory over Middlesbrough in the return leg of the semifinals, the team made it to the final against Liverpool. It's clear who the favorite will be, but let's see how it unfolds on the field. Many didn't believe in the aristocrats in the cup after a goalless draw in London, but in the replay, the team convincingly defeated Aston Villa 3-1. However, this confident progress seems to apply only to knockout games. In the format of a classic championship, maintaining the level is possible - but unfortunately, it's at the level of a disastrous previous season. What was the point of making extensive changes to the squad, spending record sums on newcomers again, just to practically replicate the same results under Pochettino, who arrived in the summer, and with almost the same style of play, or rather, often its absence? They defeated Crystal Palace in the last round on Monday, but were trailing in the score, and only sealed the victory in additional minutes.
In 2021, City reached the Champions League final for the first time - and unexpectedly lost 0-1 to the Blues. After that, the Citizens constantly beat them, but in the first round, it ended 4-4, and the champion suffered greatly from their own academy graduate, Palmer, who moved to London at the end of the summer. Everyone expects a very easy victory for the Citizens. But they have an opponent who can cause problems - let's apply a neutral bet in the form of total under 3.5 goals.
Prediction for the match: Under 3.5 scored goals.
