Today at 3:00 p.m. ET fan of the Barclays Premier League will be treated to a fine matchup, pitting two of the top three teams in the table against one another at Etihad Stadium in a matchup that can be live streamed here.
Manchester City will take the pitch at Etihad with a major advantage, that of their home crowd. Man City is 11-0 at home, although boss Manuel Pellegrini does not think the raucous environment will hinder Chelsea one bit.
"I don't know what the other teams think," Pellegrini said. "Maybe one team can be feared, another team cannot be feared. One can come here just to defend, another team will think it is better to attack. I don't know what will happen, but for our team it is very important not to think about the past."
Pellegrini also wants his side focused on playing great soccer, not about any particular aspect of the game such as scoring or defending against Chelsea's formidable attack. "For us it is very important to think that it's a new game and we don't know if we are going to score a goal, and we are not just thinking of scoring goals.
"I think in football all that has happened in the past is not important."
This matchup is extra spicy as well because of the well-known feud between Pellegrini and Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho, who recently jabbed at Man City and called their financial moves "dodgy."
"I remember perfectly but, I repeat, I don't want this game to be a thing about Mourinho and me," Pellegrini said diplomatically. The game is played on the pitch, not the sidelines, so Pellegrini's bigger concern will be coping without his top scorer, Sergio Aguero.
Aguero, who has notched 15 goals this year, is expected to miss a month of play with an injured hamstring. He will join Samir Nasri and Javi Garcia as inactives.
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