Notable statistics of Chelsea vs Man City match
Chelsea enters the new season with new coach Enzo Maresca . He became the fourth Chelsea coach to meet the defending champions in his first Premier League match. In the previous 3 matches, the London team failed to win.
Claudio Ranieri led the team to a 3-3 draw with Man United in September 2000. Avram Grant's tenure began with a 0-2 loss to Man United in September 2007. Meanwhile, Rafael Benitez helped Chelsea draw 0-0 with Man City in November 2012.
Maresca could give his Chelsea debut to former Wolves winger Pedro Neto, who joined the team for a €60 million transfer fee earlier this week and became the most expensive recruit of the nine players. Just joined Stamford Bridge.
Neto is very strong in counterattacks, thanks to his excellent personal speed and technique. Last season he only played 1,518 minutes due to injury, but was involved in many goals and assists for Wolves.
Neto's presence could force Cole Palmer to move into the middle. Last season Palmer scored 22 goals and 11 assists - the best performance in the league. Among them, he scored 16 goals at Stamford Bridge - an achievement equal to Drogba in the 2006-2007 season and Frank Lampard in the 2009-2010 season.
Unlike Chelsea's massive purchases, Man City's Pep Guardiola continues to put his faith in the group that brought home an unprecedented fourth consecutive championship last season. They only added midfielder Savinho from Girona and sold Julián Alvarez to Atletico Madrid.
However, Guardiola is facing a big problem as he begins his 9th season with Man City when midfielder Rodri was removed from the Chelsea squad. The best player of EURO 2024 has just returned to training and has not yet guaranteed playing conditions.
Since the beginning of the 2022-2023 season, Man City has lost only 6 out of 102 matches with Rodri in the starting lineup. Meanwhile, without Rodri, the Etihad home team suffered 18 defeats.
In the Premier League last season, Green Man boasted a record of 27 wins, 7 draws and no losses when Rodri appeared, but lost 3/4 matches (one win) when he was absent.
However, the Blues will have to be wary of the threat from two-time Premier League Golden Boot winner Erling Haaland. The Norwegian player started both of his Premier League seasons with a double in round 1. He scored 2 goals against West Ham in 2022-2023 and Burnley in 2023-2024. Haaland can become the first player in Premier League history to score a double in round 1 in three consecutive seasons.
Confrontation Chelsea vs Man City
In the last match the two teams met at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea drew 4-4 with Man City, with the equalizer scored in extra time by Cole Palmer. This is considered the best match of last season.
However, the Blues did not win in the last 6 encounters with Man City in the Premier League, with 2 draws and 4 losses. The last time the London team won against their opponent was in May 2021 at Etihad Stadium. At that time, Thomas Tuchel helped the home team defeat Man City 2-1.
After this match, Chelsea also beat Man City 1-0 in the Champions League final. But since then, Man City has been unbeaten in 9 encounters with Chelsea in all competitions (7 wins, 2 draws). This is the longest unbeaten streak against the Blues in Man City history. Before that, from 1936 to 1949, Man City also did the same thing.
The match between Chelsea vs Man City takes place at 10:30 p.m. on August 18 (Vietnam time).
