This game is the reverse of the opening-day fixture at Stamford Bridge, when Enzo Maresca suffered defeat in the first competitive match of his Blues career. against the club where he was formerly assistant coach.

A big turnaround in respective fortunes followed, and by mid-December the Londoners had carved out an eight-point advantage over the defending champions.

City have looked slicker since then – winning 6-0 at Ipswich Town last time out in the league – but remain two points behind Chelsea in the table. Both clubs have netted 44 league goals this season, but the Blues have conceded two fewer than Saturday’s hosts.

This is a challenging period all round for Man City, for whom even a Champions League play-off place is in doubt after Wednesday’s 4-2 reverse at Paris Saint-Germain. The final game against Club Brugge in the next midweek slot suddenly takes on far greater significance.

Meanwhile, Maresca’s men enjoyed a free midweek following Monday’s encouraging 3-1 defeat of Wolverhampton Wanderers and will now aim to sure up a top-four position with our first win at the Etihad for four years.

The outcome of this match-up often hinges on fine margins and not since 2016/17 have the two sides met this late in the campaign with the Londoners above the Mancunians in the table.

Team news

Maresca revealed in his pre-match press conference ahead of the trip to the Etihad Stadium that he his hopeful both Levi Colwill and Enzo Fernandez will be fit to play against Manchester City on Saturday, after they missed Monday's win over Wolves.

However, it is still too soon for former City midfielder Romeo Lavia to be involved, as the midfielder remains ruled out with an injury.

‘Probably Levi and Enzo could be ready [to face City], it depends on today’s session,’ our head coach told the media on Friday.

‘Romeo will be out for Saturday. We don’t know yet [the severity of the injury]. We need to wait a little bit more, but at least a few weeks more [he will be out].'

Maresca also confirmed there are no concerns around Cole Palmer ahead of the forward's return to his former club, after he recovered from a minor issue in time to face Wolves earlier in the week.

‘Cole is better,' added the Italian. 'He did an unbelievable effort to play against Wolves and he is getting better.'

The history

Across all competitions, Chelsea have won 71 of the 179 encounters between the two sides, and City 67.

It was at Manchester City in October 1966 that inside-right Tommy Baldwin, making his debut a day after leaving Arsenal, tapped in the league leaders’ second. The unbeaten Blues hit three times in six first-half minutes, but the pick of the goals in a 4-1 win was Peter Osgood’s late slaloming run and finish.

Between January 1979 and March 1989, the Londoners enjoyed six straight wins at Maine Road in various competitions, either side of a remarkable 5-4 Full Members’ Cup final win for the Blues at Wembley in March 1986.

Our meeting in May 1984 was the first time the BBC’s live cameras had visited the old Division Two. John Neal’s side ran out 2-0 victors, showing why they and not the Citizens were heading back to the top flight. Pat Nevin showed brilliant wing play before firing in courtesy of the far post and Kerry Dixon headed in his 33rd of a prolific season.

In recent years the trend has been in the Mancunians’ favour, though, with no Blues victory in the past 10 meetings. What preceded that barren spell was the unforgettable triumph in Porto, when Mason Mount picked out Kai Havertz for the only goal of the 2021 Champions League final.

Our most recent league win came just a few weeks earlier, behind closed doors at the Etihad. Raheem Sterling opened the scoring for City against his future team-mates, but Hakim Ziyech slid home from the edge of the box and, after VAR ruled out a Callum Hudson-Odoi finish, Marcos Alonso converted the stoppage-time winner.

The result delayed City’s coronation and made it 27 Premier League defeats against the Londoners – the most by any of their opponents.