Man City welcome Chelsea to The Etihad Stadium on Saturday evening hoping to overtake them into the Champions League spots. Chelsea are currently sitting in 4th, two points ahead of Man City.
Both clubs are joint third in goals scored in the Premier League this season with 44, only behind Liverpool and Spurs. Chelsea have seen both teams to score in their last three games, while Man City have scored and conceded in three of their last five games.
Chelsea’s best performer over the last two seasons has been Cole Palmer who has picked up where he left off last season with 14 Premier League goals to his name and has had at least one shot in every game this season but one. I’m tipping both teams to score, over 2.5 goals and over 1.5 Cole Palmer at 1.90.
Cole Palmer
Palmer is Chelsea’s top scorer this season so far with 14 goals, he has taken 77 shots this season, an average of 3.5 shots per game. Palmer very rarely has less than two shots in a game, the last time he only had one shot against his opponent was against Newcastle in October in a 2-1 win.
When Palmer faced his former club Man City during the first game of the season he had two shots in a 2-0 defeat. On Saturday he will look to turn his shots into goals when he returns to the Etihad where playing time was limited for him.
BTTS Stats
Man City and Chelsea have both scored an average of two goals per game, the way both sides attack means they are both likely to be involved in high scoring games. Man City have only kept five clean sheets in 22 games, whereas Chelsea have only had four. We expect both teams to fail to keep a clean sheet on Saturday.
Chelsea have been involved in both teams scoring in 73% of their games this season. Another goal stat is that 59% of their games have ended with over 2.5 goals which largely favours our tip for Saturday.
70% of Man City’s games at home this season have ended with both teams scoring and 80% of games had over 2.5 goals scored at the Etihad. Most recently the last three games at home for City have ended with both teams scoring which includes a win against West Ham, draw with Everton and defeat to rivals, Man United.
Goals Galore
This season Chelsea’s average expected goals (XG) has been 1.75 per game and XG against of 1.26. In contrast, City’s XG is 1.95 goals per game, 2.02 at home and 1.15 against them.
Are we starting to see the old Man City after a 6-0 thrashing at Portland Road against Ipswich Town? It certainly looked like Man City were at their very best with the goals being shared out between Phil Foden (2), Kovacic, Doku, Haaland and McAtee. It will be a much more difficult game against Chelsea, will they continue this new run of form and leap frog the Blues into the Champions League places?
After a slight scare at half time Chelsea bounced back to beat Wolves 3-1 at Stamford Bridge on Monday night. Thanks to goals from Tosin, Cucurella and Madueke they grabbed all three points and are now just four points behind Arsenal in 2nd place. We look forward to an exciting game on Saturday which should have plenty of goals on show.
Bet £10 and get £30 in FREE BETS with Kwiff Casino!
