Manchester City hosts Chelsea this evening (13 September 2008) in a seemingly exciting premier league match. The match will take place at the Eastlands stadium of Manchester City. Chelsea is now at the top of the league table on goal difference with 7 points from three matches so far this season. Manchester City stands third in the table with a point behind Chelsea. A victory could bolster Chelsea’s position at the top of the table, while host Manchester City replace Chelsea at the top with a victory today. City will have home advantage while taking on Chelsea. So, both sides will be confident to win the match.
Match: Manchester City vs Chelsea, English Premier League 2008-2009
Date: 13 September 2008, Saturday
Venue: Eastlands
Kick off: 17:30 BST (British Standard Time)
Chelsea will definitely look to pick up four points from the match, while a draw would be a satisfactory performance for Manchester City. Chelsea has been in an excellent form so far this year. In fact, Chelsea is the only premier league club who has not lost any match so far this year in premier league. They are currently on 24-match unbeaten streak.
Records for Manchester City are not as impressive as Chelsea. Last year, they lost to Chelsea in both home and away. They lost to Chelsea in their six previous premier league meetings and could not score any goal against Chelsea. However, new signing Robinho’s presence might boost up Manchester City’s confidence level to come out of poor showing against Chelsea this time around.
Robinho Expected to Make his English Premier League Debut against Chelsea
Now, ahead of the match the main focus is now on City’s high-profile summer signing Robinho who sets to make his premier league debut with the evening showdown with Chelsea. Robinho joined Manchester City in a move from Real Madrid for a British record fee of £32.5 million on the deadline day of the Summer transfer window following a series of turn and twists regarding his transfer saga. Robinho had been a prime target of Chelsea all through the summer, but after a number of negotiations between Chelsea and Real Madrid being failed to agree on Robinho’s valuation at Real Madrid, Manchester City made a last-minute jump to sign the Brazilian striker under the noses of Chelsea. Though Robinho himself was interested to join Chelsea to play under his former national team manager Luiz Felipe Scolari, he was, in fact, left with no other options except joining Manchester City. Now, Robinho is going to have his premier league debut against Chelsea. Manchester City boss Mark Hughes recently talked about a likely debut of Robinho against Chelsea.
BBC reported:
"On the day I met him in London a week and a half ago, one of the first things he said was that he can't wait for the game because he can't wait to play against Chelsea, so that's a good sign.
"I know it's being billed as the 'clash of the cash'. We are really looking forward to getting back to playing football and the fixture against Chelsea is a fantastic one for us, it's the perfect game for us given the circumstances."
Shaun Wright-Phillips is also expected to play his first match after his return to Manchester City from Chelsea. So, the English player might start his second stint at Manchester City with today’s match against former club Chelsea. He returned to Eastlands last month from Chelsea for £9m after playing 125 matches and scoring 10 goals for the West London club since joining in June 2005 in a move from Manchester City for a £21m transfer fee. Another player who will be facing his former club Chelsea if given a chance is Tal Ben-Haim who made 23 appearances for Chelsea. However, Manchester City will have to face Manchester City without services from Martin Petrov who has been out of the match with knee injury. Moreover, Michael Johnson is doubtful for the Chelsea encounter as he is yet to recover from groin injury. However, the good news for Manchester City is that defender Micah Richards is expected to return to action after shaking off hi shoulder injury.
Ballack, Essien out, but Drogba and John Mikel Obi Fit to Travel to Manchester City
Chelsea also has one thing or two to contend about regarding injury. The West London club will be missing its star midfielder Michael Ballack as the German star is injured out with foot problem. Moreover, midfielder Joe Cole is doubtful for today’s match as he needed few stitches to the cut to his head during England’s 4-1 victoy over Croatia. However, he is expected to travel with team to Eastlands and might come on as substitute against Manchester City. Michael Essien has been ruled out of the match with a ligament injury suffered during international duty. On the other hand, the good news for Chelsea is that John Mikel Obi will be available for the match after recovering from leg injury. Chelsea’s Ivorian striker Didier Drogba is fit enough to return to action for the first time this season following a recovery from long-term knee injury.
Online Live Score and Updates
Here, I am giving some names of online live score websites from where you can get the online live score and updates of the match:
Live Score
Goalzz
Live Football Scores
Goal.com
Footie Scorez
Chelsea seems to be favorite on pen and paper considering the strength of the squad, but you can not write off Manchester City right now as they are going to play in front of their home crowd. City fans will inspire their players and welcome new signing Robinho. The Brazilian striker could be an inspiration for other players of Manchester City and Chelsea needs to ensure that Robinho is marked well in the box; otherwise he could be lethal for Chelsea and make the difference in the match. I just expect to watch a hard-fought interesting match today. In fact, so do other premier league fans as well.