Chelsea v Manchester City – Who Has the Better Strikers?

Chelsea have a golden opportunity to stop City’s ascent up the table at Stamford Bridge this weekend. The Blues are currently only three points behind league-leaders City and could find themselves level if they manage a victory. City’s forwards, however, have been clicking into gear over their last couple of fixtures and could threaten to overrun Chelsea if Conte doesn’t set his defence up perfectly. We’re going to take a look at which team’s forwards is likely to win out on the day!

City’s forwards lead the stats by a heavy margin; Sterling sits on 8 goals with Aguero and Sané each have 7 and Gabriel Jesus has 5 – for a combined total of 27 goals across the four.

Chelsea’s four top scorers are significantly less prolific; Morata has nabbed 6 goals, Batshuayi has 5, and then left back Marcos Alonso is next up with 3, and winger Pedro has 2 – with a combined tally of 15, almost half of City’s four top scorers.

The goal-scoring isn’t the only relevant stat, though – for City, 71% of their shots on goal come from central positions, with their attacking possession being equally split at 36% for both flanks. This means their chances are mostly created out wide, with the finishing happening centrally and mostly around the 6-yard area – so Chelsea will need to look to shut down the flanks while keeping their central defenders tight to the strikers like Aguero and Gabriel Jesus.

Chelsea’s attacking threat is a lot more focused than City’s, with Alvaro Morata being their best goal outlet. Considering City’s somewhat questionable defence, the Chelsea midfielders and fellow forwards like Willian and Pedro must create as many direct chances for Morata as possible if they’re going to hurt City. Conversely, if City’s defence focuses on neutralising Morata, it could open gaps for others to exploit.

Overall the stats point to City’s forwards coming out on top, with Aguero and Gabriel Jesus being frequent first scorers – while on Chelsea’s side, a goal is most likely going to come from the Spaniard Morata, who should be feeling confident after an impressive hat-trick at Stoke.

Victory for City means they’ll have kept a potential fellow challenger at bay, and with their impressive attack we’re going to go for a Chelsea 1 – 3 Manchester City result to put the citizens confidently on top of the league again!

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