Chelsea vs Manchester City preview: How to watch on TV, live stream, team news & prediction
By Harry Symeou
Having both reached this season's UEFA Champions League semi-finals earlier this week, Chelsea and Manchester City must first do battle with another with a place in the FA Cup final at stake.
The Blues were beaten finalists last season and will be looking to go one better under Thomas Tuchel, while for City a place in the final at Wembley would keep their hopes of completing a historic quadruple alive.
Pep Guardiola's men won in Dortmund on Wednesday night to secure their passage into the Champions League last four, but Chelsea's route was slightly different - they tripped over the line against Porto after losing the second leg of their quarter-final. Thankfully, a two-goal advantage from their first meeting was enough to see Tuchel's side over the line.
Here's 90min's preview of what should be a game based all around possession.
Is Chelsea vs Manchester City on TV??
When is it? Saturday 17 April
Where is it? Wembley Stadium, London
What time is kick off? 5:30pm (GMT)
TV Channel: BBC One (UK)
Referee: Mike Dean VAR: Peter Bankes
Chelsea team news
Chelsea will be without Mateo Kovacic after the Croatian midfielder suffered a hamstring injury in training.
Thiago Silva got through the entire 90 minutes against Porto on Tuesday and is in contention to start in defence. Andreas Christensen is also an option for Tuchel.
Manchester City team news
Manchester City's only unavailable star is Sergio Aguero. The Argentinian aside, Pep Guardiola has a fully fit squad and has plenty of options if he decides to freshen things up and rotate.
Chelsea vs Manchester City predicted lineups
Chelsea: Kepa; Azpilicueta, Rudiger, Christensen; James, Jorginho, Kante, Alonso; Mount, Werner; Havertz
Manchester City: Ederson; Walker, Dias, Laporte, Cancelo; Rodri, Gundogan, De Bruyne; Mahrez, Jesus, Foden
Recent form
Chelsea
Chelsea 0-1 FC Porto - 13/04/2021
Crystal Palace 1-4 Chelsea - 10/04/2021
FC Porto 0-2 Chelsea - 07/04/2021
Chelsea 2-5 West Brom - 03/04/2021
Chelsea 2-0 Sheffield United - 21/03/2021
Manchester City
Borussia Dortmund 1-2 Manchester City - 14/04/2021
Manchester City 1-2 Leeds United - 10/04/2021
Manchester City 2-1 Borussia Dortmund - 06/04/2021
Leicester City 0-2 Manchester City - 03/04/2021
Everton 0-2 Manchester City - 20/03/2021
Prediction
Both managers have large, talented squads at their disposal who are more than capable of defeating any opposition. Add to that the fact both Tuchel and Guardiola have rotated their starting XIs regularly and it becomes even more difficult to predict the outcome.
City sit 20 points clear of their semi-final opponents in the Premier League but Chelsea have improved significantly since replacing Frank Lampard as head coach, particularly from a defensive standpoint. Both managers play a possession-based game and it'll be interesting to see which side are able to impose themselves.
This feels like the type of game that will be decided by the odd goal and it wouldn't be a surprise to see a cagey affair decided by the ultimate test of nerves.
Prediction: Chelsea 0-0 Manchester City (Man City win on penalties)