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Manchester City meet Chelsea on Sunday in a match that will be vital for both sides to keep their Premier League title chances alive.
Both teams currently have 26 points, although City have played two fewer games, and a win for either team would move them four points behind leaders Liverpool and Manchester United.
But City are at a serious disadvantage, as they will not have five players due to positive coronavirus tests, as well as central Eric García, who is out due to injury.
Of those five players we only know for sure that Gabriel Jesus and Kyle Walker are among them, with the other three players yet to be identified, making predicting Pep Guardiola’s side even more difficult than usual.
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A side effect of the positive tests and the resulting postponement of the game against Everton means that City have not played in a week so it must be the first time since the start of the campaign, which means that the players who are available they have had enough time to rest for the game.
So even though the Carabao Cup semi-final with United will come on Wednesday, the Blues manager will likely name as strong a team as possible at Stamford Bridge.
Goalkeeper Ederson appears to be a doubt for the match, as he posted on Instagram that he was isolating himself. It has not yet been confirmed that he is one of the players suffering from COVID-19, but if he is, it is likely that Zack Steffen will replace him.
With Walker’s continued absence, Joao Cancelo is likely to continue as right back and Nathan Ake, who has recently been preferred to Benjamin Mendy or Aleks Zinchenko, as left back. Ruben Dias and John Stones have continued to perform brilliantly as a duo and both are likely to start if available.
Choose your preferred City XI here:
Midfield can also be a similar story if everyone is fit, with Guardiola’s established trio of Kevin De Bruyne, Rodri and Ilkay Gundogan playing in the middle of the park.
Given that Sergio Agüero continues to feel his way back to fitness, it seems unlikely that he would take a chance early on, so with Jesús out, Ferran Torres will likely be deployed down the middle with Raheem Sterling and Riyad Mahrez on the flanks. .
Man City XI vs Chelsea prediction: Steffen; Cancello, Stones, Dias, Ake; De Bruyne, Rodri, Gundogan; Mahrez, Torres, Sterling.
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