New month, new year, new head coach … new Chelsea? Enzo Maresca’s out, Liam Rosenior’s (soon) in. For now, U21s boss Calum McFarlane and his staff are in temporary charge, but that’s just for this weekend. It looks like Rosenior will be making the move from RC Strasbourg soon after.
But changing managers is always easy. Changing the team’s fortunes will be a lot harder. Chelsea have just two wins in all competitions since November, and just one win in our last seven Premier League games. We’ve dropped out of the top-four and are barely hanging on to top-five status. With half the season still to go, recovering some semblance of form will be crucial.
That may not begin at City (probably won’t begin at City), and this is a bit of a free hit given the circumstances. So perhaps we’ll pull off a shock result, in classic Chelsea fashion.
Date / Time: Sunday, January 4, 17.30 GMT; 12:30pm EDT; 11pm IST
Venue: Etihad Stadium, Manchester
Referee: Michael Oliver (on pitch); Darren England (VAR)
Forecast: Absolutely freezing all day, chance of snow at gametime
On TV: Sky Sports Main Event (UK); NBCSN … is back! (USA); Star Sports Select HD1 (India); SuperSport Premier League, Canal+ Sport 3 (NGA); elsewhere
Streaming: Sky Go (UK); Peacock (USA); JioHotstar (India); DStv Now (NGA)
Manchester City team news: City’s surging momentum was checked by Sunderland on Wednesday, a goalless draw halting an eight-match winning run and opening the gap slightly to league-leaders Arsenal. The Gunners won yesterday against Bournemouth, so City will need all three of these points to not fall further behind. Antoine Semenyo started that game for the Cherries, so he’s not yet a Manchester Blue.
Not that Pep Guardiola’s lacking for quality options, even with Omar Marmoush and Rayan Aït-Nouri away at the Africa Cup of Nations and Oscar Bobb, Savinho, John Stones, and Mateo Kovačić injured (Bobb may also be leaving this month). Midfielder Nico González is facing a late fitness test, as are Jérémy Doku and Rodri, who both made their returns from long injury layoffs on Wednesday.
View from the enemy: Bitter and Blue
Chelsea team news: Our injury situation is slightly better, with only Levi Colwill, Dário Essugo, and Roméo Lavia out, but our left back situation is not clear at all — Marc Cucurella and Jorrel Hato were both back in training but remain doubtful, at best — and Moisés Caicedo is suspended once again, this time for yellow card accumulation.
That said, the task for interim head coach Calum McFarlane is pretty simple: play our best players, in their best positions, and see if their individual skills can carry the day. It’s going to be a busy month ahead for the Blues, across four different competitions, but he can let the new guy in charge worry about all that.
Previously: Our recent record against City is absolutely horrendous, having lost three in a row, including 3-1 here last season, and still looking for our first win against them since the 2021 Champions League final. This will be our 12th meeting since then.
