New month, new 12 months, new head coach … new Chelsea? Enzo Maresca’s out, Liam Rosenior’s (quickly) in. For now, U21s boss Calum McFarlane and his employees are in non permanent cost, however that’s only for this weekend. It appears like Rosenior will probably be making the transfer from RC Strasbourg quickly after.
However altering managers is all the time simple. Altering the workforce’s fortunes will probably be loads more durable. Chelsea have simply two wins in all competitions since November, and only one win in our final seven Premier League video games. We’ve dropped out of the top-four and are barely hanging on to top-five standing. With half the season nonetheless to go, recovering some semblance of kind will probably be essential.
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That won’t start at Metropolis (in all probability received’t start at Metropolis), and it is a little bit of a free hit given the circumstances. So maybe we’ll pull off a shock consequence, in traditional Chelsea style.
Date / Time: Sunday, January 4, 17.30 GMT; 12:30pm EDT; 11pm ISTVenue: Etihad Stadium, ManchesterReferee: Michael Oliver (on pitch); Darren England (VAR)Forecast: Completely freezing all day, probability of snow at gametime
On TV: Sky Sports activities Predominant Occasion (UK); NBCSN … is again! (USA); Star Sports activities Choose HD1 (India); SuperSport Premier League, Canal+ Sport 3 (NGA); Streaming: Sky Go (UK); Peacock (USA); JioHotstar (India); DStv Now (NGA)
Manchester Metropolis workforce information: Metropolis’s surging momentum was checked by Sunderland on Wednesday, a goalless draw halting an eight-match successful run and opening the hole barely to league-leaders Arsenal. The Gunners received yesterday towards Bournemouth, so Metropolis will want all three of those factors to not fall additional behind. Antoine Semenyo began that recreation for the Cherries, so he’s not but a Manchester Blue.
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Not that Pep Guardiola’s missing for high quality choices, even with Omar Marmoush and Rayan Aït-Nouri away on the Africa Cup of Nations and Oscar Bobb, Savinho, John Stones, and Mateo Kovačić injured (Bobb might also be leaving this month). Midfielder Nico González is going through a late health take a look at, as are Jérémy Doku and Rodri, who each made their returns from lengthy harm layoffs on Wednesday.
View from the enemy:
Chelsea workforce information: Our harm scenario is barely higher, with solely Levi Colwill, Dário Essugo, and Roméo Lavia out, however our left again scenario shouldn’t be clear in any respect — Marc Cucurella and Jorrel Hato have been each again in coaching however stay uncertain, at greatest — and Moisés Caicedo is suspended as soon as once more, this time for yellow card accumulation.
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That mentioned, the duty for interim head coach Calum McFarlane is fairly easy: play our greatest gamers, of their greatest positions, and see if their particular person expertise can carry the day. It’s going to be a busy month forward for the Blues, throughout 4 totally different competitions, however he can let the brand new man in cost fear about all that.
Beforehand: Our current file towards Metropolis is totally horrendous, having misplaced three in a row, together with 3-1 right here final season, and nonetheless on the lookout for our first win towards them because the 2021 Champions League ultimate. This will probably be our twelfth assembly since then.