Blues travel to the Champions – The Odds

Chelsea travel to the Etihad to take on Manchester City, and are a top priced 4.33 with bet365 to win what looks sure to be a a battle royal.

As far as the stats are concerned, City have won only one of their last four Premier League matches against Chelsea.

However having won 10 of their first 12 league away games against City the Blues have lost the last three in a row.

The good news as far as Chelsea is concerned though is that City have won none of there last three games in the league (D2, L1), and the pressure is starting to mount on Roberto Mancini following their 3-1 defeat at Southampton.

There is already talk of him being axed, and interestingly the last time that City went four games without a win was back in November 2009 when they drew seven in a row – a run which led to the sacking of Mark Hughes.

The players also don’t see a happy bunch, and this represents a good opportunity for Chelsea to capitalise on all the disharmony and secure a victory to reduce the gap between them and City to just one point.

As far as the goalscorer markets are concerned, it is once again hard to get away from the obvious credentials of Frank Lampard and Juan Mata who have both been outstanding this season.

Lampard is aiming to score in five consecutive Premier League appearances for only the third time (did it in 2005 and 2010), and is priced up at 11 with bet365 and Paddy Power to score first and a tasty looking 4.2 with Paddy Power to net anytime.

Mata, who has been deadly in front of goal of late, can be backed at 11 and 3.9 in the same markets with Boylesports.

Another bet well worth considering is for there to be a penalty in the match at 2.7 with Paddy Power as Chelsea have been awarded more penalties than any other side this season (8) while City have been awarded 14 since the start of last season.

Over 2.5 goals looks a distinct possibility at 1.7 with bet365 given the attacking prowess of both sides, and I am going to take Chelsea to win 2-1.

That outcome is priced up at a best of 15 with Betfred.