Manchester City: History favors Chelsea.

It was a hard-fought win against a tough Shakhtar side during the week. For our opponents, it was a trip to Madrid to face Atletico. In the late game on Saturday we will both meet at the Bridge and it will be a test as to just how far we’ve come.

Last season our opponents did the double over us. A 2-1 defeat at their place and 3-1 at the Etihad. From that point of view, any points over the two games will mark an improvement. The way this City side have been cruising through games though, you would be expecting a little more than that.

Our first meeting with Chelsea was at their place. It was 7th December 1907, and we came away with a 2-2 draw. Under the management of Harry Newbould we’d finish third that season with James Buchan and Billy Jones scoring our goals.

In 157 meetings starting with that first game City have won around a third, victorious on 52 occasions. We’ve lost 66 times with the other 39 resulting in tied games. It doesn’t get any better when looking at recent history either.

You have to back to the 27th February 2010 for the last time City have beaten Chelsea on their own ground in the League. That game was a battle of the braces with Frank Lampards two goals being met with Carlos Tevez and Craig Bellamy getting two each.

Now, we have beaten them in cup competitions since then, but neither was held at the Bridge. An FA Cup Semi Final victory coming in April 2013, was held at Wembley, as was the Community Shield at the beginning of the season.

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Managers:

We haven’t actually shared management staff with Chelsea. Mark Hughes and Eddie Niedzwiecki were in our dugout at the start of the Abu Dhabi take-over. Both had enjoyed spells at Chelsea as players with varying success.

Hughes came after a successful spell at our rivals, United. At Chelsea he spent three seasons, winning the FA and League cups, along with UEFA Cup success. Eddie was with Chelsea in the 1980’s and won promotion to the top-tier.

Players:

Currently they have Willy Caballero in their squad, although I’d be surprised if he started. Frank Lampard, mentioned above, also played for both.

In attack, and with varying success with both, there was a whole host of names. George Weah, Clive Allen, Nicolas Anelka and Daniel Sturridge all played in both shades of blue.

Shaun Wright-Phillips left us for Chelsea, for a 21 million pound fee, before returning to us for around 8.

Other names include Clive Allen, Terry Phelan, Wayne Bridge, Scott Sinclair, Danny Granville and David Rocastle.

Next: City undo unyielding Ukrainians

Interesting Connection:

The last English professional football player to die in the First World War was George Lake. He was on City’s books but never made a first team start. He moved and only made the single appearance for Chelsea before the war started.

His great-nephew, Paul, played for City in the 1980’s and 90’s.