League Cup holders Manchester City and FA Cup holders Chelsea fight for the first major trophy of the season, the two sides meet at Wembley Stadium in the League Cup final on Sunday. These two have already competed for a trophy this season as they clashed in the Community Shield in August, and Manchester City won that match 2-0. The two rivals have already played their two Premier League matches of the season, Chelsea started well with a 2-0 victory at Stamford Bridge in December but then got thrashed 6-0 at the Etihad Stadium in February. Overall, Manchester City have won four of the last six direct matches in all competitions, while Chelsea won just two. Manchester City have been the most successful side in the League Cup in recent years, they have won three of the last five editions. Chelsea have won the League Cup five times in their history, the same as the Citizens.
Chelsea have been going through all sorts of problems since the start of 2019, they have lost most of their important matches and have dropped to sixth place in the Premier League table. In fact, the only domestic competition that has been treating them kindly was the League Cup, where they managed to pull past Tottenham in the semi-finals, albeit after a penalty shoot-out. This week started with a 2-0 defeat at home against Manchester United in the FA Cup and continued with a routine 3-0 victory over Malmo FF in the Europa League on Thursday. Pedro and Kepa Arrizabalaga are injury doubts for Sunday's match, along with Davide Zappacosta.
Manchester City have been in almost perfect shape in 2019, they have won twelve of their thirteen matches in all competitions and have temporarily returned to the top of the Premier League table. Their League Cup route was significantly easier than Chelsea's and they took full advantage of that by hammering League One side Burton 10-0 on aggregate in the semi-finals. The Citizens also progressed to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup thanks to a 4-1 victory at Newport County last week, and they took a significant advantage in the UEFA Champions League last-sixteen with a 3-2 victory at Schalke 04 in the first leg on Wednesday. John Stones and Fabian Delph are injury doubts for the Citizens, but Vincent Kompany has returned to action in this week's European match and should make the squad for the League Cup final. Gabriel Jesus and Benjamin Mendy are out injured, along with Eliaquim Mangala and Claudio Bravo.
Probable line-ups
Chelsea: Arrizabalaga - Azpilicueta, Rudiger, Luiz, Emerson - Kante, Jorginho, Barkley - Pedro, Higuain, Hazard
Man City: Ederson - Walker, Fernandinho, Laporte, Danilo - De Bruyne, Gundogan, D. Silva - Sterling, Aguero, Sane
My prediction: Manchester City to win 2-0, Chelsea don't seem capable of troubling any of the big teams lately.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
Chelsea win - 5.50
Draw - 4.50
Man City win - 1.53
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Comments (1)
sharpe
02/23/19, 05:02:52 PM
That final could not take place in a worst moment for Chelsea and better for Man City I guess. The two teams are so far away on the two ends of the scale that...
That final could not take place in a worst moment for Chelsea and better for Man City I guess. The two teams are so far away on the two ends of the scale that City looks to be a monstrous favorite and the bookies odds shows just that. It's still a final and you never now in this kind of games, more so Chelsea should play for their pride ass well after that humiliating 0-6 v City just a couple of weeks back. 3-1 to City.
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