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Key events
2 min Right, tactics. Bashir Humphreys has started at centre-back, with Trevor Chalobah at right-back, and Humphreys’ first contribution is to calmly dispossess Bernardo Silva near the byline.
1 min Peep peep! Chelsea, specifically Kai Havertz, kick off from right to left as we watch.
The players gather round the centre circle to pay tribute to Gianluca Vialli. Don’t count the years in his life; remember the life in his years.
A reminder of the teams
Man City (4-1-2-3) Ortega Moreno; Walker, Akanji, Laporte, Gomez; Rodri; Bernardo, Foden; Mahrez, Alvarez, Palmer.
Substitutes: Ederson, Phillips, Stones, Ake, Cancelo, Gundogan, Haaland, De Bruyne, Lewis.
Chelsea (possible 4-2-3-1) Kepa; Humphreys, Chalobah, Koulibaly, Hall; Jorginho, Kovacic; Ziyech, Gallagher, Mount; Havertz.
Substitutes: Bettinelli, Azpilicueta, Badiashile, Cucurella, Thiago Silva, Chukwuemeka, Zakaria, Hutchinson, D Fofana.
The players are ready for business. It looks a grim, dank day in Manchester, perfect for a sliding header.
GP speaks
Today’s winners* will play … at home to Oxford or Arsenal in the fourth round
* Or the winners of the replay if they draw today
If they really want to pay tribute, one of them should score a sliding header today.
The draw for the fourth round is taking place as we spake
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Rome wasn’t built in 140 characters
He’s on the bench again today
Football lost a bit of the twinkle in its eye on Friday, when Gianluca Vialli died aged 58. He wasn’t quite the man who started the Chelsea revolution – but he did accelerate it, winning three major cup competitions in as many seasons and making them credible Premier League challengers for the first time.
In 1998-99 they lost only three games and still finished third behind Manchester United and Arsenal. Vialli also took Chelsea to a Champions League quarter-final, when they came within a few minutes of eliminating Barcelona. More than all of that, he made the world a lighter, happier place.
Team news
Seven changes for City, six for Chelsea. Notable starters include Julian Alvarez, Cole Palmer and Aymeric Laporte for City, and the teenagers Bashir Humphreys and Lewis Hall for Chelsea.
The return from injury of Mason Mount means that Chelsea are now only without nine senior plyaers. Two of their new signings, Benoit Badiashile and Datro Fofana, are among the substitutes; Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, the sub who was subbed against City on Thurusday, is not.
Man City (4-1-2-3) Ortega Moreno; Walker, Akanji, Laporte, Gomez; Rodri; Bernardo, Foden; Mahrez, Alvarez, Palmer.
Substitutes: Ederson, Phillips, Stones, Ake, Cancelo, Gundogan, Haaland, De Bruyne, Lewis.
Chelsea (possible 4-2-3-1) Kepa; Humphreys, Chalobah, Koulibaly, Hall; Jorginho, Kovacic; Ziyech, Gallagher, Mount; Havertz.
Substitutes: Bettinelli, Azpilicueta, Badiashile, Cucurella, Thiago Silva, Chukwuemeka, Zakaria, Hutchinson, D Fofana.
Referee Robert Jones.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to live coverage of Manchester City v Chelsea at the Etihad. It’s the tie of the FA Cup third round, a plumdinger between two teams who contested the Champions League final 18 months ago. The good news for both is that one of them will end a losing streak today. The bad news is that they’ll do it by losing.
To explain. In each of the last three seasons, City have been knocked out of hte FA Cup in the semi-finals. Chelsea have gone one worse by losing the last three finals, a unique and unwelcome achievement. For one of them, the streak ends today.
If it’s Chelsea – full disclosure, it’s not beyond the realms – the bizarre pressure on Graham Potter will intensify. As if a grotesque injury list wasn’t bad enough, he has drawn City in both cup competitions and had to play them in the league the other day as well.
I was going to say that the FA Cup is Chelsea’s last realistic chance of winning a trophy this season; then I remembered how bad their form was before they won the Champions League in 2012 and 2021. Still, it’s probably their best chance, certainly if they get through today.
Chelsea owned this competition between 2006-12, winning it four times in six seasons, but they’ve only won it once in the last decade. City’s bid for world domination really got going when they beat Stoke in the 2011 final to win their first major trophy in 35 years. Since then they’ve only won it once, when they plugged Watford 6-0 to complete a slightly forgotten domestic Treble in 2018-19.
Under Pep Guardiola, and Manuel Pellegrini for that matter, City have been more of a Carabao Cup team. It’s not their biggest priority this year – RB Leipzig away on 22 February – but they wouldn’t say no to a bit of trophy-lifting action at Wembley in June. Yep, June.
Kick off 4.30pm.
