Chelsea vs. Manchester City: Tactical Preview

ByNicholas Peters|

After their lethargic performance in a 2-0 home loss to Arsenal, Manchester City enter their January 31, 2015 match against Premier League leading Chelsea in an extremely precarious position.

City now trail Chelsea by five points and this match is most likely the best opportunity for the Citizens to close this gap. However, while City must win to seriously challenge Chelsea for the title, they must also remain defensively sound, as a loss will put them eight points behind Chelsea and realistically out of touching distance for the Premier League crown.

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Most importantly, City must not play into the hands of Jose Mourinho, Chelsea’s manager, who has built his managerial resume on nullifying the strengths of attacking sides and countering into their weaknesses. He did this when he led an inexperienced and unheralded Porto side to the 2004 Champions League victory.

At Inter Milan, Mourinho conducted three defensive master classes against Chelsea, Barcelona, and Bayern Munich on route to the 2010 Champions League victory. Finally he led Real Madrid to a 1-0 victory in the 2010-2011 Copa Del Ray final, a 2-1 away victory over Barcelona which helped clinch the 2011-2012 La Liga title.

To avoid being centrally overrun by a central midfield that is anchored by Nemanja Matic, a physical and technically skilled holding midfielder who has been the best player in the Premier League short of Alexi Sanchez, with wingers Eden Hazard and Willian who bring central attacking threats from wide areas.

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City Manager Manuel Pellegrini must deviate from his preferred two forward formation to add an extra central midfielder and play a 4-2-3-1 formation. David Silva would play as the central attacking midfielder with a double pivot of Fernandinho and Fernando with the age of Frank Lampard and the absence of Yaya Toure, due to his duty with the Ivory Coast national team at the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations.

The injury to ball playing winger Samir Nasri, the wing positions would be occupied by the athletic, direct, but technically limited Jesus Navas and James Milner, a deployment that Mourinho can exploit.

“Confident in Chelsea’s ability to win the Premier League title with a five point advantage and with the potential losses of Cesc Fabregas, who leads the Premier League in assists with 15, and Diego Costa, who leads the Premier League with 17 goals, expect Mourinho to set out his team to nullify the attack of City…

Confident in Chelsea’s ability to win the Premier League title with a five point advantage and with the potential losses of Cesc Fabregas, who leads the Premier League in assists with 15, and Diego Costa, who leads the Premier League with 17 goals, expect Mourinho to set out his team to nullify the attack of City.

He will look to deny space to all of City’s central and attacking players, including central midfielders, wingers, fullbacks, and forwards. By playing a 4-3-3 formation, with a 1-2 central midfield, against City’s 2-1 central midfield, Chelsea will occupy all of City’s central midfielders and deny them the space they need to create scoring opportunities.

This is a tactic that Arsenal used in their recent 2-0 victory away to City. Arsenal, with an inferior central midfield of Santi Cazorla and Aaron Ramsey, denied Fernando and Fernandinho the opportunity to play the ball to Silva, who was man marked by Francis Coquelin, who had the best game of his career.

Mourinho will complement his formation with a deep defensive line to deny City’s most dangerous attacker, “Kun” Aguero, the ability to make runs in behind Chelsea’s defensive line, where Aguero is the most dangerous.

Throughout the 2014-15 season, Aguero has developed into one of the most feared attackers in World Football, as seen in Manchester City’s 3-2 comeback win over Bayern Munich to save their Champions League ambitions, with Aguero’s ability to anticipate passes and athleticism to make runs behind defensive lines, playing a high line with the 34-year-old John Terry would be disastrous, as former Chelsea manager Andre Villas Boas found out on multiple occasions.

Mourinho will also restrict the freedom of Branislav Ivanovic, who is carrying an injury to his foot, and Cesar Azpilicueta, Chelsea’s fullbacks, to negate the opportunity for City’s wingers, who are most dangerous when they exploit advanced positioning by fullbacks and counterattack into they space provided.

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With City’s wingers not a threat to drift into midfield and link play with Pablo Zabeleta and Gael Clichy, City’s fullbacks, will be forced to attack aggressively and act as chance creators by crossing the ball into the 5’8” Aguero against the 6’2” Terry and his 6’3” center back partner Gary Cahill.

With City’s fullbacks advanced to support their attack in a match they must win, City could become exposed to Chelsea’s dangerous front three of Hazard, Willian, and center forward Loic Remy, replacing Costa if he is suspended, who is a dangerous weapon with space on the counter attack, in what might be a disjointed, sporadic, but still extremely dangerous attack.