3. City’s weak left flank
Careful analysis will reveal the one glaring chink in City’s armor, their left flank. Both Gael Clichy and Alexander Kolarov, playing at left back, are suspect defensively while David Silva, who is playing as the left sided attacker in City’s 4-4-2 formation, has the tendency to drift infield leaving space behind for their left back to move into.
This presents Chelsea with an opportunity to exploit City’s left flank as any ball played behind the left back is likely to catch him out of position, and give space for Chelsea’s striker/winger to run on to. Demichelis lacks the pace required to cover the space behind the left back, and Chelsea could have very good chance of throwing few long balls towards Eto’o and Hazard on the counter. Samuel Eto’o is at his best when he is able to shake of his markers and get into scoring positions, and this may just the sort of game that he could repeat his heroics of a fortnight back against another Manchester club.