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2024/25 English Premier League
Matchday 23
Manchester City v Chelsea
Etihad Stadium
Manchester, England
Saturday, 25 January 2025
Kick-off is at 19h30
Manchester City will be keen to build on their biggest victory of the season over Ipswich when they welcome out-of-sorts Chelsea to the Etihad Stadium on Saturday, January 25 in the late kick-off.
The Citizens endured their worst run of form under Pep Guardiola after losing six of their eight matches prior to Christmas, but they've managed to stop the rot somewhat.
The 6-0 hammering of the Tractor Boys at Portman Road on January 19 was their third win in four outings and took Guardiola's side back into the top four ahead of Newcastle (5th) on goal difference.
City still trail Nottingham Forest (3rd) and Arsenal (2nd) by six points, while Liverpool are a further six points clear at the
Premier League summit with a game in hand on their title rivals.
The Blues have dropped out of the UEFA Champions League places after failing to win their last five matches, picking up just three points out of a possible 18 during that period.
Enzo Maresca's side drew 2-2 with Bournemouth most recently, although they have a chance to climb back above the defending champions if they beat Wolves on January 20.
Image Source: Alamy Stock Photo
City's injury woes have eased up considerably in recent weeks and they will only be without Rodri (knee), Oscar Bobb (calf) and Nathan Ake for the visit of the West Londoners, with John Stones (ankle) potentially coming back into contention.
Chelsea could welcome back a quartet of players in Cole Palmer (ankle), Levi Colwill, Enzo Fernandez and Romeo Lavia (thigh), but Wesley Fofana, Benoit Badiashile, Omari Kellyman (all thigh), Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Mykhailo Mudryk (suspension) remain available for selection.
Guardiola was pleased to see his team show what they are capable of as City equalled a club-record biggest away win in Suffolk, although he admits they need to be producing results on a more consistent basis.
"Everything was really good. We were so aggressive and with the ball we were quicker, faster, wiser in the decisions we had to take," the Spaniard said.
"The most important thing today is the result for obvious reasons but also the fact that they realise what we were. We realised that when we do this, OK we can compete, and be a team like we enjoy doing what we like to do.
"Hopefully the players can feel it. We talked a lot recently about what we missed. Especially we have had a lot players not here. Step-by-step, hopefully more players can come back, we can be more consistent and do this sort of performance more often because so far this season we haven't done it."
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Maresca has called on his wingers to help share the load in terms of goals as they cannot keep relying on Nicolas Jackson and Cole Palmer to do all the heavy lifting in attack.
"We have the third-best attack in the Premier League, so we score many goals, but the way the team is playing we can score more goals," the Italian declared.
"It is not about just Nico [Jackson]. Probably in terms of wingers we can score more goals for the amount of times that we arrive and put our wingers in positions one-v-one in the box, like Pedro [Neto] and Jadon [Sancho]. Hopefully they can start soon to score goals.
"The important thing is that they arrive there in every game. In the last game against Bournemouth, Jadon and Noni [Madueke] arrived one-v-one inside the box many times. If we are clinical for sure it is better for the team, so if we can have our attacking players, our wingers, being more clinical it will be good."
Head-to-Head (Last Five Premier League Meetings)
Matches - 5
Man City wins - 3
Chelsea wins - 0
Draws - 2
Premier League Matchday 23 fixtures:
Saturday, January 25
17h00: Bournemouth v Nottingham Forest
17h00: Brighton & Hove Albion v Everton
17h00: Liverpool v Ipswich Town
17h00: Southampton v Newcastle United
17h00: Wolverhampton Wanderers v Arsenal
19h30: Manchester City v Chelsea
Sunday, January 26
16h00: Crystal Palace v Brentford
16h00: Tottenham Hotspur v Leicester City
18h30: Aston Villa v West Ham United
21h00: Fulham v Manchester United
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