Forced to drop a few tears for the Chapacoense players who lost their lives earlier this week that I decided to give them the first lines of the preview to Saturday's visit to the Etihad for what many believe will be our toughest test this season.
A minute of silence will be held before the kickoff of every football game this weekend according to FIFA directives while players will also wear black armbands to pay tribute to the deceased stars.

Focus switches to Chelsea's season story which would most probably have been different if we had began the season playing the way we are playing now (3-4-3).The game against Hull heralded the beginning of a seven game winning streak that could be halted or extended when we take on a side only a point behind in the league standings.We have also scored 19 times during the period under consideration.

City meanwhile have won three of their last five games in the league although they recorded only a single shut-out against West Brom while games against Middlesbrough and Southampton ended in draws.

The club's fortune has been turned around since Conte's arrival with teams that confined us to the wrong side of the scoreboard last season being dismantled both at home and away.The citizens were however the team we lost to with the highest goal margin on both grounds 3:0 though we trashed them 5:1 in the FA cup in February.This is a major challenge Conte will be looking to turn in his favour knowing that a Guardiola led team has never beaten the blues in normal time.In fact,his only victory came in that penalty shoot-out loss in the 2013-14 European Super cup.We dumped his Barcelona team out enroute to our Champions league triumph in Munich.

Manchester City Vs Chelsea Head To Head

This is the 156th meeting between both sides.The blues have triumphed on 64 occasions with the citizens managing 52 wins.This fixture has ended in a stalemate 39 times.

Recent League Meetings

03-02-2014 Manchester City 0 : 1 Chelsea

21-09-2014 Manchester City 1 : 1 Chelsea

31-01-2015 Chelsea 1 : 1 Manchester City

16-08-2015 Manchester City 3 : 0 Chelsea

16-04-2016 Chelsea 0 : 3 Manchester City

Manchester City Vs Chelsea League Form
Manchester City D W D W W

Chelsea W W W W W

Team News

It is yet to be seen if Conte will make any alteration to his winning side after seven consecutive victories while City could feature few or no changes from the team that won at Turf Moor last weekend.

There are no fresh injury concern for the blues who will be hoping to open up a four point gap with victory in Saturday's lunch time game.

Go Blues!