The traditional curtain raiser for the new English football season will take place in Birmingham as the Olympic football final is being played at Wembley Stadium on Saturday.
TRANSFER ACTION
Manchester City have been basking in the glow of their first Premier League title it seems, with no names coming in, and only Wayne Bridge and Owen Hargraves departing. The expected lead stories at Eastlands about Carlos Tevez, Mario Ballotelli and of course the potential capture of Robin Van Persie's signature have failed to occur.Meanwhile, Chelsea have signed Eden Hazard (and his little brother), Marki Martin and Brazilian Oscar while releasing Jose Bosingawa, Salomon Kalu and seeing Didier Drogba leave on a free.
RECENT FORM
Pre-season form is a complete waste of time as both clubs have trapsed around the world playing exhibition matches using a wide variety of players with most of the international players involved in Euro2012 taking an extended break.Both sides played friendly games on Saturday 4th of August, with Manchester City beating Wolfsburg 2-0 with goals from Sergio Aguero and Yaya Toure, while Chelsea were beaten 1-3 by Brighton - Frank Lampard getting Chelsea's goal.
Meanwhile a look at recent league matches between these two clubs shows that the results have been evenly split in the last two seasons, with both teams using home advantage to win their home fixtures.
2011-12 Head to Head Results
Manchester City 2-1 Chelsea
Chelsea 2-1 Manchester City
2010-11 Head to Head Results
Chelsea 2-0 Manchester City
Manchester City 1-0 Chelsea.
WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN ?
Chelsea were a little off the pace last season domestically, finishing 5th in the league with much of that put down to the inability of young manager Andre Villa-Boas to control a dressing room full of stars with big paypackets and even bigger egos.
The Blues did win the Champions League of course, with new manager Roberto Di Matteo coming in and creating a solid defensive platform that relied a lot on counter attacks and Didier Drogba upfont.
But it seemed to me that Manchester City looked at stronger side over the course of the season, and a when I look over the two squads, I feel that City have youth and talent in depth.
Those prices of 2.30+ for a Manchester City win in 90 minutes look good to me.
Best Betting Prices :
Chelsea to win at 3.28 at Pinnacle, 3.20 at BetVictor, and 3.10 at Bet365
Draw at 90 minutes at 3.50 at Pinnacle, and 3.40 at BetFred
Man City to win at 2.34 at Pinnacle, 2.30 at BetVictor, and 2.30 at Bet365
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