London is Blue Dispatch #032

As the euphoric intoxication brought upon by a night with a 90^th minute winner and chants of “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright,” fades from memory, a more sobering realization dawns upon the mind. If there ever is a blatantly obvious defining point this season, in any Chelsea season recently, it is the all-consuming shadow of the Manchester City juggernaut looming over the Etihad.

Chelsea’s result at City away in the league has made and broken managers. The last time Chelsea won at the Etihad, they went on to win the Champions League, beating them again in the final. In 2019, City ruthlessly dismantled Maurizio Sarri’s side 6-0, with City four up within half-an-hour. Not even a comprehensive win over Arsenal in the Europa League final could salvage the Italian manager’s job. The Italian before him, Antonio Conte, managed the Blues’ win at the Etihad before that, enroute to the most recent of six league titles. You get the gist.

Head to Head

Pochettino’s record vs Pep Guardiola makes for interesting reading. The pulsating 4-4 draw against the Champions early on in the season was one of the highs of the Argentinian’s reign with the Londoners clawing back thrice to draw level. The only thing colder than the pouring rain at Stamford Bridge that night was the ex-City boy with ice in his veins, dispatching an equalizer in stoppage time. Poch lost both his encounters against the Catalan maestro while at PSG, but when they met in the Champions League during his time at Spurs, he orchestrated one of the best results in their history over two legs.

Little of that will be of any importance against a side that has lost only once in the last four months. That loss was the only instance in a third of a year that they’ve failed to score. The return of Kevin De Bruyne, who possesses enough magic to nutmeg a training cone, who also happens to turn up regularly in a fixture against his bitterly estranged beau, presents an inauspicious omen. Do you still hear “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright?” You would be forgiven for hearing Ramin Djawadi’s “Light of the Seven.”

No one can afford a repeat of the first 45 minutes against Palace. Guardiola admitted to having watched the game on TV, praising the Blues’ spirit, but praise from Guardiola is often a disarming tactic before the haymaker lands square on the jaw. There is no doubt that he will be showing Jeremy Doku and Phil Foden how easily Jean-Philippe Mateta spun Axel Disasi wide 1v1, while Erling Haaland will be made to watch every far-post header that has led to dangerous openings on defensive set-pieces.

Make no mistake about it, Man City, their imperious confidence rejuvenated, will see us as little more than a crash test dummy likely to implode at first impact. Should we try to go blow-for-blow like we tried to against Liverpool, the score could end up far worse than it did against Liverpool.

This is a game which will truly test how far this young, mercurial side has come. The demand will be on resilience out-of-possession and on near flawless incisiveness without the ball. The Blues have seldom put the two together in one game. Should Pochettino manage the unthinkable, it would be the strongest possible message from him and his players to the fans and the hierarchy that this is going somewhere. To his credit, in five games against the top 4 this season, there has only been one defeat, albeit a heavy one. The rest of the sample size indicates that it is a side that does enjoy being the underdog. A statement of this magnitude days before the Carabao Cup final could go a long way in salvaging half a season’s worth of work and turning the tide, for real this time.