DBasia.news – Chelsea will visit Etihad Stadium, the headquarters of Manchester City in week 26 of the Premier League on Sunday (10/2) at 23.00 Western Indonesian Time. In that match, Maurizio Sarri, the Chelsea manager, hoped his team would be able to repeat the victory over City when they hosted them at Stamford Bridge.
At that time the Blues won 2-0 and became one of the teams that beat The Citizens. Not only that, Chelsea was able to make the ‘war machine’ of Pep Guardiola’s team stopped moving and did not create many dangerous opportunities.
Like the Sun Tzu “The Art of War” book, Sarri also has a Man City anti-tactics plan that focuses on counterattacks, strong defenses, and pressures every time the opponent touches the ball.
“We have to be very fast when we are able to win the ball. They are able to put pressure on very well and it is difficult to find a way out of that situation. If we can do it, we can perform well,” Sarri said.
Furthermore, according to the former Napoli coach, it’s quite difficult to repeat a great performance at Stamford Bridge. Especially Man City play at home and fans support can trigger them to be more intense at attacking, try to find a gap on each side of the Chelsea defense.
“I think we were lucky (in the last game against City) because we scored in a very difficult moment in the match. Maybe we deserved to win in the second half, but we were very lucky in the first half,” added Sarri.
“In that match we defended very well because they only had three chances on target, nothing more. It was not easy playing against City to limit their three chances – they have scored 43 goals in 15 matches, so this is difficult and we have to survive well.”
“I am happy with the results (at that time) and also the team’s performance, we now need consistency. I hope that Sunday will be the best version (from Chelsea’s appearance),” he hoped.
Both have extra ambitions and motivation to win the match later. Man City want to continue to add pressure to Liverpool in the fight for the Premier League title, while Chelsea want to maintain a position in the top four (Champions League zone) from the pursuit of Manchester United and Arsenal.