1. Mourinho to park the bus?
LESS THAN A week ago, Jose Mourinho had a pop at West Ham boss Sam Allardyce for deploying “19th century football” during a disappointing 0-0 draw.
Many have accused the Portuguese manager of being highly hypocritical in his assessment and point to numerous occasions during his career when he happily ‘parked the bus’ — including Inter Milan’s famous Champions League semi-final second leg against Barcelona at the Nou Camp in 2010.
Chelsea have been cautious on the road against their fellow title contenders this season and this is unlikely to be any different (despite Mourinho claiming that they are going for three points), which means they will look to soak up pressure and catch City on the counter through their attacking talents such as Eden Hazard, Oscar and Willian.
2. Can they realistically stop the Man City juggernaut?
When the sides last met back in October, Chelsea earned a 2-1 victory when Fernando Torres pounced on Joe Hart’s blunder to score a 90th-minute winner after Andre Schurrle and Sergio Aguero had scored to leave it level.
While that was an important victory to pick up, Mourinho will be aware that City (three points ahead of Chelsea in the table) are a completely different animal at the Etihad as they have won all 11 of their home games in the league this term.
The Pensioners have conceded the fewest number of goals this term (20) but come up against the Premier League’s top scorers, who have amassed 68 goals in 23 outings. The contrast in styles should make for an intriguing encounter.
3. How big a loss will Sergio Aguero be?
Luis Suarez is running away in the Premier League scoring charts but sandwiched in between the Uruguayan and his Liverpool striker partner Daniel Sturridge is Man City’s main man Sergio Aguero.
‘El Kun’, who has 15 league goals to his name this season, limped off with a hamstring injury in last Wednesday’s win over Spurs and will miss tonight’s game as well as the the FA Cup fifth round (also against Chelsea) and City’s Champions League Round of 16 first leg against Barcelona later this month.
It is a massive blow for Manuel Pellegrini but his team does have goals right through it and in Alvaro Negredo, who has become an instant hit since arriving from Sevilla in the summer, City possess an excellent replacement to lead the line and feed off the creativity of David Silva, Yaya Toure and Jesus Navas among others.
