Will Chelsea hold Man City’s Premier League title race?

Manchester City start the day with 10 points above second placed Chelsea who have to fight hard for a win to keep their title hopes.

City won their first leg match at Stamford Bridge in September last year but Thomas Tuchel’s ability to guide Chelsea to the biggest of results should not be taken for granted after beating Manchester city last season in the Champions League final and FA Cup semi-final.

Table leaders Manchester City could again be without several players for the Premier League visit of Chelsea after suffering further cases of coronavirus this week.

Ederson, Raheem Sterling, Phil Foden, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Fernandinho, John Stones and Jack Grealish all missed last week's FA Cup win at Swindon, but the club have not confirmed exactly who has tested positive. They have also not said who the new cases are, nor who is now negative.

Riyad Mahrez is also away with Algeria at the Africa Cup of Nations tournament that’s happening in Cameroon.

Andreas Christensen will miss out for Chelsea after testing positive for Covid-19. The Blues will hope Thiago Silva and N'Golo Kante can start, having returned to the bench for Wednesday's Carabao Cup semi-final second leg at Tottenham after their own Covid isolation.

Trevoh Chalobah [hamstring], Ben Chilwell [knee] and Reece James [hamstring] are longer-term absentees, while Edouard Mendy is also at the Africa Cup of Nations.