Manchester City vs Chelsea as it happened: Premier League

Match report: Silva downs unambitious Chelsea

Thibaut Courtois stretches as the ball loops over his bar (Getty Images)

Manchester City host Chelsea at the Etihad hoping to move an astonishing 18 points clear at the top of the Premier League, at least until Manchester United play Crystal Palace on Monday night.

The Blues have endured a mixed patch of form and are desperately in need of three points to keep up the chase on the top four, but that will be a tall order against this rampant City side, who are full of confidence having beaten Arsenal 3-0 in two successive matches.

Can last season's champions pull off a shock against this season's champions-elect?

Follow the game with our live blog below:

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Key Points

Man City: Ederson; Walker, Laporte, Otamendi, Zinchenko; Gundogan, Bernardo; Sane, Silva, De Bruyne; Aguero.

[4 March 2018 15:20 · Vithushan Ehantharajah]

The teams!

Man City: Ederson; Walker, Laporte, Otamendi, Zinchenko; Gundogan, Bernardo; Sane, Silva, De Bruyne; Aguero.

Chelsea: Courtois; Azpilicueta, Christensen, Rudiger; Moses, Fabregas, Drinkwater, Alonso; Willian, Hazard, Pedro.

[4 March 2018 15:34 · Jack Watson]

Team News

Vincent Kompany drops to the bench in place of Aymeric Laporte, and Danilo makes way for Oleksander Zinchenko.

Chelsea are without N'Golo Kante who is ill, Cesc Fabragas replaces him and Pedro is also recalled in place of Alvaro Morata who joins Olivier Giroud on the bench. 

[4 March 2018 15:38 · Jack Watson]

Last Time

Kevin De Bruyne scored the only goal of the game when Manchester City beat Chelsea earlier in the season at Stamford Bridge.

[4 March 2018 15:41 · Jack Watson]

 "I think Conte is going to leave something to English football. I'm sure of that."

[4 March 2018 15:41 · Jack Watson]

"He's had a lot of chances. I think you need to improve the finishing when you have chances."

[4 March 2018 15:43 · Jack Watson]

[4 March 2018 15:45 · Jack Watson]

[4 March 2018 15:48 · Jack Watson]

Manchester City start the day 22 points ahead of Chelsea. Just a quick reminder, Chelsea won the league last year...

[4 March 2018 15:55 · Jack Watson]

The players are back in the changing rooms and will be receiving their final instructions from Pep Guardiola and Antonio Conte. Kick off is around five minutes away and we'll have live updates from the action at the Etihad.

[4 March 2018 16:01 · Jack Watson]

1: We're off. Chelsea get us underway.