Closed Man City v Chelsea

[yipo 56]

courtious

iva-cahill-tery-azpi

mikel

matic-fab

ramires-oscar-hazard

costa

and we might see fabregas and lampard reunion

[Styles 9,790]

I prefer Oscar over Willian for this. Unleashed our strongest players in this match, whatever the result after that, I will accept.

Willian is better than Oscar at a lot of things and would be a better option for this game in my opinion.

Willian and Ramires are a must for this game, especially if we're going to play *cough* Fabregas *cough*.

[Daniel1980 1,425]

The team that we put on the pitch against Schalke looked really good in attack bar Drogba. Dorgba and Cahill out, Costa and Azpi in, and we're good to go. IMO, we shouldn't try to park the bus against City. With our defence looking suspect, attacking and trying to outscore City might be a better approach.

[TheOneChan95 225]

Obviously a win would be fantastic, but a draw would be a decent result.

I expect the same XI against Schalke except for Drogba and maybe Luis.

[Special Juan 27,429]

If Costa doesn't make it then it has to be Remy. Get at them because they haven't exactly been great.

Willian must start.

[Viper22 2,418]

---------------Courtois----------------

---Azpi-----Cahill-----JT-----Luis--

-----------------Matic------------------

------Fabregas-----Ramires-------

--Willian-------------------Hazard--

-------------Diego Costa------------

The walking goal/MOTM machine that is Costa simply has to start. We really need Ramires and Willian for their legs and tracking back ability to deal with Navas/Toure/Silva which is frankly terrifying. Rest of midfield picks itself. Luis at LB as he proved last night that he deserves a start, Azpi at RB because as good as Ivan has been going forwards this season defensively he's a liability. So i'd prefer Ivan at RB in games against smaller teams but Azpi against teams with quality LWs. Cahill, JT and Matic need to pick their shit up and play their best games this season so far if we're to come out of this match with anything, and tbh I think they will.

Heart says 1-0 to the blues, brain says 1-1 or 1-2 if we play Ivan.

Quitely confident though .

[Magic Lamps 11,655]

This is the game we can beat them comfortably. Even though they have been poor this season, that does mean nothing for the clash on Sunday. Schalke were also crap in their first 4 games and had the match of their lifes yesterday (still were crap). Agüero is not fully fit and we surely can stop Dzeko. Yaya Toure is not as menacing when we have Matic to for him to occupy with. With Costa I feel confident we will not be as wasteful as yesterday.

LUis was a bright spark, amazing player, defensively solid, offensively lively and what an accurate crosser he is.

---------------Courtois----------

Ivanovic-Cahill-JT---Luis

----------Matic----Ramy-----

Willian----Fabregas--Hazard-

---------Diego Costa-----------

which will operata as a 4-3-3 most of the time, with Fabregas and Ramy also interchanging

Last time we beat them with raw pace. that is why I thik Remy will have a part to play, too.

City really are not that strong so far. They struggle with parked buses, but also when you press them high up the pitch and take to game to them. We obviously are decent at both. We only have to do it consequently. Most importantly we have to take our chances.

On a different note. There might be some fatigue due to the late onslaught vs Schalke. These are the situations where our lack of real squad strength comes obvious. We need another defender + another midfielder and maybe a player to take Drogs's place. By the time the vital matches come,he will be 37. Sooner or later we have to face that we can't play a 60+ matches season with only 3 HG players and having our squad size reduced to 20 senior players as a consequence.

[Fulham Broadway 16,855]

---------------Courtois----------------

---Azpi-----Cahill-----JT-----Luis--

-----------------Matic------------------

------Fabregas-----Ramires-------

--Willian-------------------Hazard--

-------------Diego Costa------------

The walking goal/MOTM machine that is Costa simply has to start. We really need Ramires and Willian for their legs and tracking back ability to deal with Navas/Toure/Silva which is frankly terrifying. Rest of midfield picks itself. Luis at LB as he proved last night that he deserves a start, Azpi at RB because as good as Ivan has been going forwards this season defensively he's a liability. So i'd prefer Ivan at RB in games against smaller teams but Azpi against teams with quality LWs. Cahill, JT and Matic need to pick their shit up and play their best games this season so far if we're to come out of this match with anything, and tbh I think they will.

Heart says 1-0 to the blues, brain says 1-1 or 1-2 if we play Ivan.

Quitely confident though .

Agree with that, but Mourinho this morning said Costa wont start.

[stroey 2,525]

I'm a little bit worried about our defense and the protection from the midfielders.

Matic isn't as solid as last season, so might we need Mikel next to him and give Matic more freedom to participate in the attack.
We need Willian's legs in this one, as we could see he's fantastic in tracking back and stop counter attacks because he's faster than a lot of players.
Don't think Mou will change Azpi for Luis in this match, so think he will go with the fixed back 4.

(4-3-3)
Courtois
Iva-Gary-JT-Azpi
Rami/Mikel Matic Cesc
Willian Costa Hazard

[Sidzeret 2,257]

I will be surprised if Mourinho didn't start with both Branna and Azpi in spite of Luis' performance last night.

Just like last season, Azpi is going to sit deep and Ivanovic will have the occasional runs forward. If Jose plans to make our full backs sit deep, Azpi is going to be obvious choice over Luis eventhough the latter is a more well rounded full back.

Matic could play the lone holding role with Ramires supporting. Don't think Fabregas will be a confirmed starter for games like these.

4-1-4-1

................Tibo..............

.Ivanovic......JT......Cahill....Azpi

................Matic................

.Willian..Ramires..Fabregas/Oscar...Hazard

...............Costa.....................

[thehappyone 140]

Not Drogba.

i wanted scotland to still be a part of britain untill i read this comment

[mannyfreshh 164]

To go 8 points clear on city this early would do wonders for our tittle hopes. Then again I would be ok with a draw. After winning there last season, we must get a result on Sunday.

[svajo 153]

courtious

iva-cahill-tery-azpi

mikel

matic-fab

ramires-oscar-hazard

costa

and we might see fabregas and lampard reunion

great lineup. now we just need to convince the FA to let us play with 12 men.

[Daniel1980 1,425]

To go 8 points clear on city this early would do wonders for our tittle hopes. Then again I would be ok with a draw. After winning there last season, we must get a result on Sunday.

We didn't win there last season, though. We lost 0:2.

A win would be fantastic, of course, but our record against City isn't that great lately, so I'd be okay with a draw.

Edit: you're right, we won. I got it mixed up with our loss in the FA Cup.

[The Skipper 20,593]

We didn't win there last season, though. We lost 0:2.

A win would be fantastic, of course, but our record against City isn't great, so I'd be okay with a draw.

We won there last season. Did the double over them in the PL. We lost there in the cup however.

[stroey 2,525]

We didn't win there last season, though. We lost 0:2.

A win would be fantastic, of course, but our record against City isn't great, so I'd be okay with a draw.

We won 0-1 in the competition (goal Ivanovic), the 2-0 was in the FA cup.

[Daniel1980 1,425]

We won there last season. Did the double over them in the PL. We lost there in the cup however.

My mistake, you're right.

[boshman 1,073]

I would take a draw here. To keep them 5 points behind would be fantastic imo.

Defensivley we have to wake up though. If we defend like we have been doing we will get ripped apart.