Hello and welcome along to our live coverage of the Premier League’s teatime game as Chelsea host Manchester City at Stamford Bridge. Kick off is at 5.30pm and we’ll have all the build up between now and then.
Let’s start with the team news, with Eden Hazard to make his first league season of the season as Conte makes two changes from the Champions League win over Atletico Madrid on Wednesday.
David Luiz and Victor Moses make way for Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen while City make just one change from their win in Ukraine midweek. Sergio Aguero — injured in a car crash in Amsterdam — is replaced by Raheem Sterling in the XI.
Chelsea: Courtois, Rudiger, Christensen, Cahill, Azpilicueta, Kante, Bakayoko, Fabregas, Alonso, Hazard, Morata.
Subs: Caballero, Pedro, Moses, Kenedy, Zappacosta, Willian, Batshuayi.
Man City: Ederson, Walker, Stones, Otamendi, Delph, De Bruyne, Fernandinho, Silva, Sane, Gabriel Jesus, Sterling.
Subs: Bravo, Danilo, Gundogan, Mangala, Bernardo Silva, Alexander Zinchenko, Toure.
The scene is set at Stamford Bridge.
The 3pm kick offs in the Premier League have just finished, and here are today’s results so far:
- Huddersfield Town 0-4 Tottenham Hotspur
- AFC Bournemouth 0-0 Leicester City
- Manchester United 4-0 Crystal Palace
- Stoke City 2-1 Southampton
- West Brom 2-2 Watford
- West Ham 1-0 Swansea City
- Chelsea v Manchester City (5.30pm)
This evening’s game is live on BT Sport and ahead of kick off Frank Lampard caught up with his former team-mate, Eden Hazard.
Attention now switches to the #PL on the eir Sport pack. Frank Lampard spoke to Eden Hazard a little earlier at Stamford Bridge. #CHEMCI pic.twitter.com/sHHWrX8AEb
— eirSport (@eirSport) September 30, 2017
Antonio Conte has been speaking about his decision to hand Hazard a first league start:
“If he was able to play one game like the last game against Atletico Madrid it means he’s ready now to play with continuity.
“For us, he’s an important player. Last season he had an important season, he played very well, he performed as a top player. I’m very happy for him.
“It will not be easy to make [selection] decisions tomorrow, because, in my eyes, there is the last performance against Atletico Madrid.
“Every single player performed very well in this game. But I have to check the physical condition for every single player and then to make the best decision.”
All the talk ahead of this one has revolved around the absence of Sergio Aguero, who suffered a broken rib after he was involved in a car accident in Amsterdam on Thursday night. The striker had been in the Netherlands at a concert and could now miss a crucial set of fixtures for City.
The visitors are, of course, also missing Benjamin Mendy after he sustained knee ligament damage during last weekend’s victory over Crystal Palace. How will Pep Guardiola’s side fare without them today?
The teams are out on the pitch and there’s a crackling atmosphere under the lights at the Bridge. Here’s a final check on the teams.
Chelsea: Courtois, Rudiger, Christensen, Cahill, Azpilicueta, Kante, Bakayoko, Fabregas, Alonso, Hazard, Morata.
Man City: Ederson, Walker, Stones, Otamendi, Delph, De Bruyne, Fernandinho, Silva, Sane, Gabriel Jesus, Sterling.
Kick off! City in their changed strip get us underway.
Chelsea looking dangerous during the opening exchanges. Fabregas pings it in to the feet of Morata, who is marshalled by two City defenders before the Spaniard heads over from Kante’s cross. He probably should have done better there.
At the other end, City win a free kick in a promising position with three purple shirts standing over it. De Bruyne is the man to strike it but his curling effort is too close to the goalkeeper and Thibaut Courtois gets across easily to safely gather.
Bright start for Sterling on his return to the side and he’s unlucky not to win a free kick on that occasion after driving inside and running at the Chelsea defence. City enjoying some early possession.
Tiemoue Bakayoko goes in hard on Otamendi but appears to have come out of it worse and is moving a little gingerly. As play resumes, Morata looks to get in behind the City defence but he is ruled offside.
Chelsea are allowing City to have time on the ball and are sitting back instead of pressing high. The visitors have enjoyed 70% possession in the opening 10 minutes.
It has been a fairly uneventful opening quarter with both sides just settling into the contest.
Walker embarks on a mazy run from right back and lays it off for Silva, but the Spaniard drags his shot from just outside the area wide.
From the kick out, Jesus closes Courtois down and the ball very nearly rebounds off the City striker and into the net.
Chelsea playing a dangerous game by sitting deep and inviting City onto them and already we’ve seen Sterling and Walker get the ball down and run at the home defence as the game just begins to open up a bit.
Fabregas looks in behind for Marcos Alonso but Ederson is quickly off his line to mop up and clear the danger and Fabian Delph then sees his effort from range deflected wide.
John Stones is down receiving treatment and looks to be in a bit of pain after landing awkwardly on his wrist. The England defender appears okay to continue.
It’s a bit stop-start at the moment and there’s not a lot happening at present. City have had the lion’s share of possession but Chelsea have had the clearest sight of goal through Morata, but his header was off target.
Ederson forced into a first piece of meaningful action as Alonso’s shot forces the ‘keeper to get down sharply to his left and parry to safety. A couple of minutes later, Morata shows great feet to beat Stones and win the corner for his side.
Nicolas Otamendi heads wide as City continue to dominate proceedings. The visitors have now had seven attempts on goal but have yet to really test Courtois in the Chelsea goal.
This is a big blow for Chelsea. Morata started signalling to the bench a few minutes ago and he’s now heading off with what appears to be a hamstring problem. Willian is on in his place.
Just about sums up the first half from both sides. Chelsea pack the box after and winning a free kick on this near touchline but Willian’s delivery is awful and barely gets off the ground before striking the two-man wall.
If truth be told, this has been utterly dreadful to watch. The first 45 minutes have been scrappy and disjointed with neither side offering too much in attack. The half-time whistle can’t come quickly enough.
Right on the stroke of half time, we have some goalmouth action. De Bruyne swings in the corner for Fernandinho to power it goalwards but Courtois produced a fine reflex stop.
We’ll have two minutes of added time.
Half-time! Chelsea 0-0 Manchester City
Pretty poor fare on offer at the Bridge so far with City dominating possession but struggling to break down Chelsea’s rearguard. The hosts had the best chance of the half when Morata headed over but the striker’s evening ended early when he limped off with a hamstring injury.
Just before the break, City had their first real sight of goal as Fernandinho powered onto a corner and saw his bullet header parried to safety by Courtois.
Teams are back out for the second period and Chelsea set the ball rolling again. No changes have been made by either side.
Chelsea are really struggling and Conte hasn’t done anything at half time to fix it. It’s still all one-way traffic and the hosts aren’t really offering anything in possession with no presence up front in the absence of Morata. Willian and Hazard are isolated figures up top and the frustration is growing in the stands.
Chance! City look to get in behind but Andreas Christensen comes across to clear the danger. From the resulting corner, the ball comes all the way through for Sterling and despite having plenty of time to compose himself, the winger snatches at his effort and it sails high and wide.
This has been a really dreadful performance from Chelsea, who are in fact the home team this evening. They’ve sat back and invited City on without being able to keep hold of possession themselves.
City are starting to cause real trouble now with the blue wall becoming increasingly stretched — the only thing that’s missing for the visitors has been the clinical finish.
The crowd are looking for something to cling onto — a tackle, a show of intent, anything. Every time the hosts get the ball there is no outlet for them to get up the pitch and the ball keeps coming back at them.
Hazard does well to keep control of the ball in midfield and for the first time this evening has the chance to get it down and run at the City defence, before drawing the foul from Fernandinho.
From the free kick, the Belgian is played in on the left by Fabregas and he forces Ederson into a smart save from a tight angle. That was better from Chelsea.
Some might say this is a fascinating tactical battle which is on a knife-edge. A tight affair, if you like. But it’s anything but, in fact a truly awful game of football. There is no tempo, no urgency and no creativity from either side — City have just been the better of the two.
GOAL! Chelsea 0-1 Manchester City (De Bruyne)
That’s the moment of magic this game badly needed! City had been knocking on the door for the last five minute and it’s de Bruyne who finally applies the finish with a superb strike from range.
Lovely build-up from City as Walker combines with de Bruyne, who strikes it sweetly with his left foot past Courtois and into the top corner. It had been coming and nobody can say Chelsea don’t deserve to be behind. They’ve been wretched.
Chelsea need to find a response and it looks like Conte is going to introduce Pedro and Batshuayi. 20 minutes remaining.
Hazard and Tiemoue Bakayoko the players to be hauled off by Conte. It’s hard to remember Chelsea being so poor in possession and furthermore lacking any sort of threat going forward, particularly at home.
Pep Guardiola makes a change of his own with Bernardo Silva replacing David Silva as we head towards the final 10 minutes.
On the restart, Chelsea manage to string their best move of the game together as Alonso bombs down the left but City have numbers in defence to deal with the cross. That’s much better from the champions and the home fans have responded.
That was a chance, and Azpilicueta should have really done better. The fullback had time and space to pick out a team-mate in the centre but his cross from the byline was straight at Ederson.
Guardiola looking to see this one out now as he introduces Ilkay Guendogan for Sane.
Off the line! Brilliantly worked by City as Sterling stands one up towards Jesus, who strikes it first time only to be denied by Ruediger on the line.
It’s all City. De Bruyne delivers a corner which is met by Stone but his header lacks power and was straight at the ‘keeper. Two minutes plus stoppage time remaining.
We’ve entered three minutes of added time as Andreas Christense spurns a half-chance for Chelsea by heading over.
Kevin de Bruyne, who has just been named man of the match by Glenn Hoddle on BT Sport, is having to go off with a knock and on comes Danilo for the final exchanges.
Full-time! Chelsea 0-1 Manchester City
Thanks for joining us this evening. We’ll have a full report on the site shortly but until then, goodbye!
Subscribe to The42 podcasts here:
