mancityblues.com

Another heavyweight contest comes City's way in the form of Chelsea on Monday, a team that looks to be finding it's feet under new manager Villas Boas. Both sides will be well up for this encounter I would imagine - City will be eager to put the disappointment of the Champions League behind them whereas Chelsea will be keen to reestablish their credentials as potential Premier League winners, so it could be a real hum-dinger.

The return to form of Didier Drogba is partly why Chelsea are looking more like the team that Mourinho built, the big Ivorian showing that he's still a top striker and maybe still the best in the business at holding the ball up and leading the line as a lone forward, also he will want to make a statement regarding his contract extension, no doubt. With the likes of Mata and Sturridge playing off Drogba, Chelsea look much more balanced and fluid than when Torres (or the departing Anelka) have tried to play in tandem with the veteran striker, and so City need to first and foremost contain the combination of power and movement that Chelsea possess up front. Mata in particular has been a stand-out performer, emulating the quality that fellow Spaniard David Silva has been displaying for City, and how these two perform (or how they are thwarted) will perhaps be the key to this fixture. Other players who have been doing well for the London club include defensive midfielder Romeu (Chelsea fans seem very impressed), box-to-boxer Ramires and keeper Petr Cech; players who have not sparkled must include John Terry (looks very vulnerable against pace and direct strikers), his partner David Luiz (too many basic errors) and the likes of Torres, Bosingwa, Mikel and even fan-favourite Frank Lampard, who may be on his way to Spurs in a swap-deal with Modric in January. It's clear that Villas Boas has a tough job in dealing with all the established egos at Stamford Bridge, but recent results do suggest that Chelsea have turned the corner - let's hope that City can provide a new crisis to occupy them.

I think that Luiz is suspended for this game, so expect Ivanovich to move over to partner Terry, with Bosingwa taking up the right-back slot. This is an area that City could take advantage of, as Bosingwa does tend to get caught up-field on occasion. I'm not aware of any other injury/suspension issues for Chelsea, although tactically some of their players have struggled with the managers instructions, at least until recently. One particular point of weakness, partly due to playing a really high line, was the ease with which space opened up around Chelsea's defence, both in the channels and directly ahead of Terry/Luiz. This is perhaps why Romeu is being praised by the Chelsea faithful, as it's been a while since Essien (and Makalele before him) really provided that quality that tied their team together. If Villas Boas does opt to press high up the pitch, then this game is tailor-made for Balotelli, Aguero and Silva, whereas a more conservative approach may be better suited to the hold-up play of Dzeko, a player who is beginning to show a much-needed aggressive edge to his game. It's hard to know which way to go, but taking into account the fitness and fatigue issues as well as tactics, I'd go with this line-up -

----------------------------HART----------------------------
ZABALETA-------KOMPANY----------LESCOTT------------CLICHY
-------------DE JONG--------------------BARRY-------------
------MILNER-----------------------------------YAYA-------
------------------SILVA---------------------------------
----------------------------BALOTELLI-------------------

Bench: PANTS, SAVIC, KOLO, NASRI, AJ, AGUERO, DZEKO

The defence picks itself - Micah and Kolarov are both out apparently. Savic impressed at right back against Bayern, but Zaba has the experience for this kind of encounter - both he and Milner will likely be called upon to negate Cole and whoever features on the left for Chelsea. Clichy could be key as he'll have to contain Mata (assuming the Spaniard pops up on the right) and Sturridge but also will be influential in releasing Yaya and Silva into the spaces vacated by Bosingwa. Normally, Yaya plays quite centrally of course, but for this one I'd like to see him focus on the left - with the cover of Barry and De Jong, he could really do some damage here. Silva will have to be at his best to escape the attentions of the Chelsea midfield/defence, but his presence will open up space for Barry, Yaya and Milner to exploit. Mario will need to be disciplined and hard-working - expect Terry and Co. to try every trick in the book to wind him up - and although this formation is nominally a 4-2-3-1 as usual City can be very adaptable when required. I do like the security of having De Jong and Barry in midfield at the expense on an attacker for these kind of games - shades of last season, perhaps - but City have been leaking some sloppy goals this campaign, and in what is likely to be a really physical, end-to-end game we'll need plenty of power and commitment in this area. Defending set pieces has also been a bit below-par, so attention will need to be given here too.

BLOOVIC