On Sunday, January 8, in Manchester at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, the 1/32 finals of the FA Cup in football will take place, in which Manchester City and Chelsea will play. The starting whistle of referee Robert Jones will sound at 18:30 Kyiv time.
Manchester city
Since the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Pep Guardiola’s men have won 3 matches and drawn 1 match. World “City” painted with “Everton”, two victories were won over “Leeds” and “Liverpool”, and the last meeting was also won, just the same with Chelsea. Then the “citizens” beat the “blue” on the road with a score of 1:0. Considering that now the Londoners have personnel losses and they have only 1 win in the last 8 matches, Manchester City is the clear favorite of the meeting. Note that City will also play at their stadium.
It is worth noting that this will be the first game of the teams in the current FA Cup. Last year, Manchester City were eliminated in the quarter-finals, where they lost to Liverpool. Note that in the 2022/23 Premier League season, Guardiola’s wards are in second place and are 5 points behind league leaders Arsenal.
Chelsea
Chelsea have clearly not been able to boast of recent results. The team has only one victory in the last eight matches, and ten players are injured. Fans demand the resignation of Graham Potter, so it’s time for the English specialist to give joy to the fans. However, the Blues lost the last meeting to Manchester City with a score of 0:1. The Londoners had chances to score, but not great. Basically, the entire course of the match was controlled by the “citizens”.
Chelsea reached the FA Cup final last year, where they lost on penalties. Interestingly, Chelsea have been playing in the final of the tournament for 2 years in a row, but failed to pick up the trophy twice. Chelsea are currently in 10th place in the Premier League this season. Note that of the first 9 teams that are above the “blue” in the table, the Londoners did not beat anyone.
Estimated compositions
“Manchester city”: Ortega – Walker, Gomez, Akanji, Stones – Gundogan, Phillips, Palmer – Grealish, Foden, Haaland
“Chelsea”: Bettinelli – Cucurella, Azpilicueta, Silva, Koulibaly – Jorginho, Kovacic – Gallagher, Havertz, Chukvuemeka – Aubameyang
Forecast for confrontation
We believe that in the upcoming match, Manchester City will still beat Chelsea, but the Blues will give the fight. Our bet will be a +1.5 handicap on Chelsea for odds of 1.82.
January 8, Sunday
Manchester City – Chelsea
Manchester. “Etihad”. 18:30 Live TV broadcast – Setanta video service
Arbitrator: Robert Jones (England) Forecast Aroged – 2:1
