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Maurizio Sarri's Chelsea will come up against league leaders Manchester City on Saturday, and the Blues will be hoping to get revenge for their 2-0 Community Shield defeat at the hands of Pep Guardiola's men at the beginning of the season.

On that day, a goal in either half from Sergio Aguero gave City victory, but that was Sarri's first competitive fixture as Chelsea boss, and the enigmatic Italian has had plenty more time to study the current Premier League champions since then.

City though have had a fantastic start to the season and remain unbeaten after 15 games, so Chelsea will have to be at their very best to take all three points at Stamford Bridge, especially after their disappointing defeat to Wolves in mid-week. Here’s all you need to know ahead of the huge clash…

What History Tells Us

Both Chelsea and Manchester City have seen huge success in modern times in the Premier League, but the head-to-head record reflects how the Blues received their funding from Roman Abramovich a full five years before Sheikh Mansour purchased the Citizens.

In fact, Chelsea have won 24 of the meetings between the two sides in the league, with City only recording 11 wins, and it would seem that the home advantage makes a big difference for the Blues.

The Stamford Bridge side have a 57 per cent win rate at their home ground, and they'll need to draw on all the support of the West London crowd if they are to improve this on Saturday.

Manager Head-to-Head

There's no doubting that both Sarri and Guardiola are heavyweights of the managerial game, but surprisingly they have only met three times in competitive football.

On all three occasions, Guardiola's City side have got the better of Sarri's teams.

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One of these was of course that Community Shield victory earlier this year, but the other two were impressive Champions League wins for the Citizens over a strong Napoli team in last season's group stage.

The Italian is also yet to win a major trophy in his career, whereas Guardiola just can't seem to stop right now.

Referee Influence – Michael Oliver

On paper, Michael Oliver looks like a fantastic appointment from the Premier League for this fixture. The 33-year-old likes to let matches flow, and is 13th out of 17 referees for fouls given per game so far this season.

With two attacking teams, fans won't want to see the game broken up by constant free-kicks, and Oliver is also only 10th for fouls per tackle, so expect to see him playing the advantage as much as possible.

One thing that will please City fans more than their Chelsea counterparts though is the Ashington-born ref's win bias. A huge 58 per cent of the games that Oliver has taken charge of so far this year have been won by the away team.

Team News

Ross Barkley looks set to be ruled out once again for the home side on Saturday, so expect to see loanee Mateo Kovacic back in Sarri's starting XI. Ruben Loftus-Cheek was potentially one of Chelsea's best players at Wolves in mid-week, but the boss doesn't seem to trust the young Englishman just yet.

The key decision for Sarri though will be who to start upfront. Recently, it has seemed as though Morata can do no wrong and will always start, despite the Spaniard actually doing quite a lot wrong - including a terrible miss from the six-yard box against Fulham.

Still, he is often preferred to 32-year-old Olivier Giroud and we wouldn't expect that to change for such a huge game on Saturday.

For the visitors, striker Sergio Aguero is still a doubt after missing the last two games, so Gabriel Jesus will continue upfront.

On the wings, Pep Guardiola started Leroy Sane and summer signing Riyad Mahrez in Tuesday's 2-1 win over Watford, with both players scoring. However, 23-year-old Raheem Sterling will surely return as he looks to add to his eight Premier League goals already this season.

Superstar Kevin De Bruyne, who has missed almost all of the season so far, will also have to wait to make his return, but City have still been flying without their best player this year and the midfield trio (whoever it may be) have stepped up in the Belgian's absence.

Ilkay Gundogan should add energy on Saturday, in a midfield who will need to stop Jorginho playing - the key to beating Chelsea this season.