Mauricio Pochettino has obvious Chelsea decision vs Manchester City with four players ruled out
Not for the first time this year, Mauricio Pochettino's puzzle pieces have been broken apart and scattered into the air. In truth, they were only really in place for 85 minutes at Villa Park last week.
The manager once more has a problem to solve, and this time there aren't too many options to ease the matter. With the absence of Thiago Silva confirmed by the boss before travelling to Manchester to face City, champions of five of the past six Premier League seasons, Pochettino will need a minor miracle to keep things entirely shut out.
Pep Guardiola's side won four out of four matches with Chelsea last season by a combined score of 8-0. The team looks entirely different this time around but memories of the 4-4 draw in November will do well to stretch into the away end of the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.
Chelsea have put together back-to-back away wins, something that goes totally against a run of six losses in seven before that, but there are still questions to be asked. In the league there have been just two clean sheets since October. There have only been two away from home all season.
Silva, even at 39, has patrolled a varying array of players and setups around him. However, it was the win last week against Aston Villa that pointed to a wider issue that hadn't truly been addressed. Although Silva offers plenty on the field,there is still a wider ignorance of his drawbacks as well.
The Brazilian is unable to play at the same intensity as his younger teammates throughout matches, and although he is often good enough to read play early and cut out danger, he was targeted against Wolves by Pedro Neto, and was part of a team that had conceded four just days earlier against Liverpool.
James sends Chelsea injury update before
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