Chelsea vs Man City LIVE: Premier League result and final score as late penalty decides eight-goal thriller

Cole Palmer scored six goals in 41 appearances for Manchester City in all competitions, including goals in this season’s Community Shield and European Super Cup.

Since joining Chelsea, he has settled himself as a regular in the line-up and could make his old club pay this afternoon.

Pep Guardiola has lost eight matches against Chelsea, the joint most of his managerial career alongside Liverpool.

Pep Guardiola’s early nemeses have joined forces. The Catalan’s first defeat as Manchester City manager was inflicted by Mauricio Pochettino, his second by Chelsea.

In his maiden season in England, 2016-17, his City finished a distant third, behind Chelsea and Pochettino’s Tottenham. His quest to win the Champions League with City eventually ended in June: two reasons why it was not concluded earlier were Pochettino, whose Spurs side eliminated City in 2019, and Chelsea, who beat them in the 2021 final.

And yet as Guardiola goes to Stamford Bridge on Sunday, it is having knocked Chelsea off their perch. The 2017 Premier League title was Chelsea’s fifth in 14 seasons, and they finished 15 points ahead of City. Since then, they have not mustered a title challenge. City have claimed 154 points more in the subsequent six campaigns; they are already 12 ahead after 11 games now.

Manchester City are aiming to keep consecutive away clean sheets in the league for the first time since a run of five from February to April 2022.

Since losing against Chelsea and Brighton in May 2021, City have only lost one of the last 68 Premier League games in which they have scored the first goal (W61, D6).

Chelsea’s only win in the last 13 home league games was 3-0 versus Luton in August. They have failed to score in nine of their 18 home league fixtures in 2023, including three of the last four.

Manchester City’s tally of 27 points is their highest after 11 league matches since they had 29 at this stage in 2018-19. They have lost three of their last six away games in all competitions, but are on a 23-match winning streak at home.

Over the past few months, as Chelsea’s hierarchy started to settle into the club, they became fixated on a specific idea relevant to this weekend’s game. They began to study what makes 100-point seasons and record-breaking sides. That might seem some way off, to an almost comic degree, but you’ve got to have goals.

Manchester City are the obvious case study, since they are the only club to manage a centurion season and they still break records. As regards what made that possible, the usual explanation might be “one of the most lavishly expensive football projects in history” but Chelsea’s owners also have huge resources and are clearly willing to spend them. Their outlay on transfer fees so far, if not quite wages, has recalled the dizzy days of Roman Abramovich between 2003 and 2006 and the first few years of the Abu Dhabi ownership at City.

And Chelsea might have a more specific reason to look at the European champions for inspiration.

Chelsea have won three of their last five league matches, following a run of just two victories in 18 attempts. They are looking to avoid registering nine home league defeats in a calendar year for the first time since 1986.

Manchester City can become the first club to win four consecutive top-flight away fixtures against Chelsea since Leeds United won six in a row at Stamford Bridge from 1973 to 1991.

Chelsea are looking to avoid five consecutive league defeats against a specific opponent since a run of seven at the hands of Blackburn between 1993 and 1996.