Manchester City aiming to halt Chelsea's journey to the title

Published on April 3rd, 2017 4:45 pm EST
Written By: Cian Murray
Diego Costa of Chelsea FC in full focuse.  The title game is very much on.  Year is 2017. Chelsea can't be caught, can they?

The answer is 'probably not,' but nonetheless, the chasing pack were given a glimmer of hope after Antonio Conte's men lost by two goals to one against Crystal Palace at the weekend.

Most punters thought Chelsea's slip would come against Manchester City, a much stronger team on paper than Sam Allardyce's Crystal Palace. However, the Blues paid for switching to an unfamiliar 3-4-2-1 formation against an inspired Palace who deserved their win.

The likes of Tottenham Hotspur in second place will be looking at this game, hoping the Sky Blues can heap the pressure on Chelsea by making them suffer a second successive loss.

Manchester City are priced at 21/10 to do so. If Pep Guardiola's side do pick up all three points, their own slight chances of winning the league will stay alive. They currently sit in third place, 11 points behind Chelsea.

City weren't able to take a win from their weekend fixture either, picking up a 2-2 draw from their game against Arsenal. That was Man City's third draw in a row in the Premier league and a repeat of that result would all but rule them out of the title race. The draw is priced at 5/2.

Victor Moses is likely to return from injury in this game, so Chelsea will probably go back to the 3-4-3 formation that has worked so well for them this season.

If they do hit the stellar form which has seen them win five out of their last six games, they will be difficult to stop. They are priced at 13/10 to push City aside and continue their stride towards this season's Premier League title.

The reverse fixture saw Chelsea walk away from the Ethiad with a 3-1 victory. Diego Costa was on the scoresheet that day and he is priced at 7/2 to get the first goal here.

Former Player of the Year Eden Hazard was also among the goalscorers and he is priced at 6/1 to score the first goal this time around in Stamford Bridge.

Last season City stormed past Chelsea in a 3-0 win, with Sergio Aguero getting all the goals. The Argentinian is priced at an enticing 9/2 to get the first here.

If you fancy him to replicate last season's heroics, you can back him to score a hat-trick at a price of 28/1. If you like your long-shot bets, then you could much worse than backing that one.

We are going to stick with the draw, which will be enough to knock City out of the running for the league, but not quite enough for Chelsea to feel secure at the top of the tree just yet.

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