Chelsea V Manchester City Live – Big Guns Collide In FA Cup Showdown

Chelsea V Manchester City

Sunday 21st February. 4PM. BBC One

The highlight of Sunday’s FA Cup action comes live from Stamford Bridge as Premier League giants Chelsea and Manchester City do battle for a place in round six of the competition. In a rare treat for terrestrial viewers, the match is being broadcast on BBC One. SO even more people can enjoy the magic.

With both clubs struggling in the league, at least by their standards, this competition could be a great opportunity to salvage something from the season. Both managers know they’re leaving in the summer too, which should provide another huge incentive to go for the win.

It’s a blockbuster clash on paper, let’s hope it lives up to the billing.

Blues To Make Home Advantage Count?

Guus Hiddink finally suffered the first defeat of his second stint at the club on Tuesday night, but the Blues have been vastly improved over the past few weeks and the FA Cup offers a real opportunity to achieve something positive in an otherwise awful season. Beating Manchester City would fire a huge signal of intent.

The Blues haven’t won the cup since 2012, but Hiddink has good memories of the competition as he led the side to victory during his first spell at Stamford Bridge. With Diego Costa finding his feet in front of goal, Chelsea can certainly hope to cause some problems against an out-of-form Citizens.

Chelsea do have a few injuries to contend with, especially at the back. However, the depth of their squad ensures that it will still be a strong team. And with the Premier League season virtually a dead rubber, the hosts can pump all of their energy into this clash here.

Will it be enough to see them through? We’ll have to wait and see.

City In Desperate Need Of A Win

The announcement of Pep Guardiola’’s arrival has had an awful impact on Manchester City’s season, and the club are virtually out of the Premier League title race following defeats to Leicester and Tottenham. However, Manuel Pellegrini will be hoping to end his Eithad tenure with a domestic cup double, and will see this is as a huge test as to whether his side are up for the challenge.

In brutal honesty, the likes of Yaya Toure haven’t seemed interested in recent weeks. Meanwhile, injuries to Vincent Kompay and Kevin De Bruyne have taken a toll too. Nevertheless, the visitors still boast a great squad and are capable of pulling off a positive result here.

The Manchester club may have one eye on the midweek Champions League clash with Dynamo Kiev, but attacking quality of Sergio Aguero and Kelechi Iheanacho will be hopeful of capitalising on Chelesea’s defensive injuries.

A draw wouldn’t be the worst result for City, but they would like to avoid the replay if possible. If they go for the juggernaut, we could be in for a classic.

Chelsea V Manchester City Betting

With home advantage on their side, Chelsea have been established as the 19/20 favourites with Bet365 while City are priced 3/1. The draw can be backed at 14/5.

Judging on the away side’s recent level of performance, you have to fancy Chelsea to edge this one. It might bot be easy for the Blues, but their domestic form has been strong and last weekend’s 5-1 win over Newcastle should give them plenty of confidence.

Pellegrini has openly said he will prioritise the trip to Ukraine as City look to reach the Champions League quarter-final for the first time too. If Chelsea perform to their potential, they could take another huge step to salvaging something from their disastrous season.

[quote_center]Chelsea to win @ Evens with Coral[/quote_center]

The Blues have had a number of players step up in recent weeks, and Oscar has been one of the main men, especially when it comes to this competition.

Chelsea’s Brazilian midfielder scored three against MK Dons in the last round and is likely to start having been benched for Tuesday’s trip to PSG. We’re backing him to take that opportunity with another FA Cup goal.

[quote_center]Oscar to score anytime @ 11/4 with Unibet[/quote_center]