3 key battles as Manchester City host Chelsea in the Premier League

Yaya Toure v Nemanja Matic

The return of Yaya Toure and the sensational form of Nemanja Matic is sure to be one battle that decides the outcome on Saturday.

City midfielder Toure has been out of the team for most of the campaign, but returned by netting twice in their 2-1 win at Crystal Palace ten days ago, and then started again in the victory at Burnley last weekend.

However, what role Guardiola wants his man to play could be an enormous part of Saturday’s encounter.

Toure has been criticised in the past for being ill-disciplined in the defensive midfield role and, if he’s selected there against Chelsea, he quite simply can’t be, otherwise the Blues will dominate the middle through Matic and N’Golo Kante, and likely win the match.

Nonetheless, Toure played that role brilliantly against Palace, completely controlling the game from there, and that should give City fans much optimism going into Saturday.

Yet, he’ll be up against the brilliant Matic, who has added attacking influence to his game this season having recorded the most number of assists in the Chelsea team with six.

Him and Kante are as good as any midfield partnership in the league, but it’ll be up to Toure and Fernandinho to minimise their influence and get the better of them if City want to get a win.