Chelsea snapped a four-match losing streak in emphatic fashion last weekend, but beating the worst team from two divisions lower, even by seven goals, has, unsurprisingly, hardly shifted the vibes. Our inglorious exit from the Champions League, coupled with just one win from our last six Premier League matches has really dimmed the prospect of finishing in the top-five. At the rate we’re going, any sort of European qualification is far from assured, especially given the strength of our remaining schedule.
We begin this final stretch of seven games with a home contest against title-contending Manchester City. And I suppose we’ll be hoping to indeed at least make it a contest. City should not be lacking for purpose and intention as they try to chase down Arsenal at the top of the table — and with Bournemouth beating the Gunners earlier today, they are well within striking distance. The gap between first and second in the table may read nine points, but City have two matches in hand (including this very game), and will be at home against Arsenal next weekend.
The silver lining then, should we get beaten again, is that we can help deny Arsenal. London has been Blue since Arsenal’s last title in 2004, with Chelsea winning the league five times during that 22-year span. We’re nowhere near adding to that tally unfortunately, but a bit of schadenfreude could help alleviate some of that pain.
Date / Time: Sunday, April 12, 2026, 16.30 BST: 11:30am EDT; 9pm IST
Venue: Stamford Bridge, SW6
Referee: Chris Kavanagh (on pitch); Paul Howard (VAR)
Forecast: Light rain and a light breeze
On TV: Sky Sports Main Event (UK); USA, Telemundo (USA); Star Sports Select HD1 (India); SuperSport Premier League (NGA); elsewhere
Streaming: Sky Go (UK); NBC Sports Live, Telemundo Deportes En Vivo (USA); JioHotstar (India); DStv Now (NGA)
Chelsea team news: The budding saga of Enzo Fernández took another turn this week, with Chelsea again fanning the flames for no apparent reason after the midfielder apologized to his teammates. The club’s initial response to some standard rumor-baiting comments in interviews was already a bit over the top, but we’re not quite ready to offer the olive branch apparently. When asked about the situation in the pre-match press conference, head coach Liam Rosenior saw fit not to draw the line under things just yet, cryptically adding that despite the conciliatory moves from Enzo’s side (including his agent’s comments), there remain “hurdles” that must be overcome for his full reintegration — whatever that means.
So Enzo remains suspended for this weekend; hopefully he will be reinstated as planned afterwards.
Similarly, we’re hoping that neither Reece James or Trevoh Chalobah are done for the season (or, for their personal ambitions, the World Cup) as they look to come back from recent injuries. Jamie Gittens and Filip Jörgensen also remain out. Levi Colwill is getting close to a potential return from his ACL injury, but that’s unlikely to be anything more than just a token gesture of reward for his progress before his proper comeback for the start of next season.
“If we put our game together, we get the game plan right, the mentality right, we can cause [Manchester City] problems.”
“[We] are a very good team. We’ve gone through a difficult run, even though in that run we were punished for mistakes. There were good moments. When I actually analysed the games that we’ve had, we’ve caused every team we’ve played against problems, but haven’t had the results for that. We need to make sure that we keep the back door shut. We need to not switch off. We need to not make mistakes because Manchester City will punish you. But I still want us to go out and play our game.”
-Liam Rosenior; source: Football.London
Manchester City team news: It’s not been a vintage season from Pep Guardiola’s City, but they already collected one trophy — beating Arsenal in the League Cup final — and are the firm favorites for the FA Cup as well. We could have a rematch of this game in that final in May, and if I had to choose to win just one of these two games, I’d choose the FA Cup any day, and twice on Sunday.
As mentioned at the top, despite a few too many hiccups this season, City are still in the title race and could yet complete a most amusing comeback to deny Arsenal the Premier League trophy. They would need a very strong finish to the season to do so, but if any team can do that, it’s City. They’ve lost just one game in any domestic competition since the turn of the year, and strengthened in January with two key signings in Antoine Semenyo and former Chelsea prospect Marc Guéhi. That’s how you do a transfer window!
Semenyo has five goals in nine league appearances to help make up for some uncustomary struggles from Erling Haaland (just three goals in the league since Christmas), while Guéhi immediately upgraded the backline, which has seen a few too many injuries this season. In fact, Rúben Dias, Joško Gvardiol, and John Stones are all out this weekend. (Of course, Haaland scored a hat-trick against Liverpool last weekend in the FA Cup, so his demise has been greatly exaggerated.)
“We have to win every single game. We need to do all of them otherwise it will not give us a chance to do it until the end. We were not consistent enough during the season, we dropped points that we should have taken and that’s why we are in the position now where we cannot do it differently.”
-Pep Guardiola; source: BBC
View from the enemy: Bitter and Blue
Previously: We’re going on five years since the 2021 Champions League final and our last win against City. That’s twelve games, for those counting, across three different competitions. Lucky number thirteen on Sunday? We do have two draws during that span, including in the reverse fixture earlier this season, under interim management. I was there in person for Enzo’s last-minute equalizer, and that was a lot of fun. Remember fun?
