Pep Guardiola is confident Manchester City have enough quality to compete at Chelsea despite multiple coronavirus cases within the squad.
Manchester City and Chelsea will lock horns at Stamford Bridge in a massive Premier League showdown on Sunday. Though the sides take the field level on points, the Sky Blues have two games in hand over the London outfit.
Both teams have struggled to provide consistency in the early stage of the season and are currently sitting outside the top-four. Manchester City are slight betting favorites ahead of the kick-off, but they have encountered massive problems across their recent trips to the capital.
Indeed, Guardiola’s men have lost three of their four previous top-flight meetings at Chelsea (W1), including the last two. Bringing their two-game losing Premier League streak at Stamford Bridge could be too tall of an order for City this weekend.
The Spanish manager won’t have the likes of Kyle Walker and Gabriel Jesus at his disposal. The duo returned positive tests on Christmas Day. However, since then, three more first-team players have tested positive, forcing the postponement of a game at Everton.
The identities of the newest absentees remain undisclosed for the time being. Nonetheless, Guardiola will have to dig into the Academy to replace the sidelined members tomorrow.
Despite facing significant problems assembling his matchday squad, former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss is confident his team will put up a fight on Sunday late afternoon.
“We have a good enough squad to go there and try to compete against a tough opponent in Chelsea,” Guardiola said, as relayed by The Independent.
“We know how it is, and we are going there to play our game, with enthusiasm and good will to try to get a result and do a good performance.”
Manchester City can take some comfort from the fact they go into this fixture on a six-game undefeated Premier League run (W4, D2). An upturn in form has seen them return in contention for the title. A potential victory in London would see City reduce the gap on top-placed Liverpool to four points.
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