Phil Lythell
Sport News 24/7Chelsea the ultimate test for Mark Hughes
By Phil Lythell, on 4th December 2009, 16:12 UTC
Mark Hughes must feel like a weight has been lifted off his shoulders following the midweek Carling Cup win over Arsenal, even if Arsene Wenger did field a weakened side.
The timing was also perfect considering Manchester City now host leaders Chelsea, who appear unstoppable right now despite their shock slip-up at Blackburn in midweek.
Despite dropping points on a worryingly consistent basis, City have not lost too much ground on those immediately above them.
While winning the title itself appears unlikely now, a win over Carlo Ancelotti's men could see City return to the top four should other results go in their favour.
The incentive is there and this should provide Hughes with ample evidence of where his side stand when it comes to being compared against the very best.
Hughes said: "We get judged by the amount of money we have spent but you just have to look back at where we were this time 12 months ago and the fact we were flirting with relegation.
"We have invested wisely and we are progressing. We are two points off where I thought we would be at this stage, so I'm pleased.
"We've got to keep that focus and intensity, but we are not a million miles away from where we should be. But Chelsea are the team to beat, without a shadow of a doubt. They are rock solid defensively and always have a real goalscoring threat.
City need to wise up to the fact Chelsea will be smarting from being knocked out of the Carling Cup. Hughes could do worse than adopt a containing policy to start with and look to utilise the quicksilver pace of Craig Bellamy and Shaun Wright-Phillips to hit Chelsea on the break. The form of this pair, along with Stephen Ireland's ability to break from midfield, will go a long way towards deciding City's fate.
Martin Petrov is still out with a knee problem, while Gareth Barry is also a doubt after suffering a recurrence of a nagging knee problem.
A clean sweep of trophies was never really on for Chelsea but the midweek Carling Cup quarter final defeat to Blackburn Rovers will continue to rankle as an opportunity missed for some time and Carlo Ancelotti will be looking for an appropriate response from his team to that failure.
Ancelotti insisted after the game that his priority this week had always been the visit to Eastlands after Chelsea had put down such an impressive marker in the title race with last weekend's emphatic 3-0 victory at Arsenal.
"No defeat is good," said the manager. "But the priority of that game was to give minutes to the players who didn't play against Arsenal. Also it was chance for our other players to recover so tomorrow we have a fresh team."
"Manchester City are dangerous and have plenty of quality. They haven't won the last seven and they will want to beat Chelsea. I think they are good enough to reach the top four because they have a good squad."
Ancelotti rested Petr Cech, John Terry and Frank Lampard at Blackburn while Didier Drogba started on the bench. The plan to field an under-strength side might have worked if the Italian hadn't used all three of his substitutions at half time.
The coach is unlikely to be so cavalier this weekend and all his big names will start as Chelsea attempt to claim their ninth successive victory against City.
Ashley Cole returns after a hamstring injury but Kalou faces a three-week absence after tearing a thigh muscle and joins Alex (hip) Jose Bosingwa (knee) and Daniel Sturridge (knee) on the sidelines.
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