Manchester City and Pep Guardiola face their toughest test yet in the Premier League this season when they host the high-flying league leaders Chelsea. Only one point separates the two teams at the moment, making this an important clash as far as the title picture is concerned.
Chelsea are on a seven-match winning run, with Antonio Conte's men finding their sweet spot after going down heavily to Arsenal. With the three-man defence working wonders, Chelsea have been near impossible to breach, but if there is a club in the Premier League capable of cutting down the Blues defence to size, it certainly is Pep Guardiola's team.
Manchester City, in many ways, are still finding their feet under Guardiola, with the performances yet to really find that consistently-good zone. In Sergio Aguero, however, they have a striker in form, and, no doubt, the Argentinian will be the man that the Etihad will look to, to try and find a way through the Chelsea wall that has been prevalent over the past couple of months.
While City have their superstar striker, so do Chelsea in Diego Costa, who has put those blues from last season behind him to lead the charts in scoring this season. Costa, like Aguero, has scored ten goals this season, but he leads the table, having given out four assists as well.
That is mighty impressive from the Spain international and Conte will want the striker to give Chelsea a fast start, something that is so essential in a big game away from home.
"Diego and Sergio Aguero are two fantastic players and two great finishers," Conte said. "They have different characteristics but they are two great strikers and Diego is very important for us and Aguero for Man City.
"At the start of the season the questions were about Diego's passion and will I be able to help him use this passion in the right way. I always replied that Diego is a fantastic striker and I was sure that in this season he will be focused on the games and the team, and on improving himself and improving Chelsea, and I think this is happening."
A win for Chelsea will increase the gap between them and City to four points, which would be a nice cushion to have, even in this early part of the season. If City manage to end Chelsea's seven-match winning run in the Premier League, it will be interesting to see how the Blues react to adversity, having found such golden form of late.
Where to Watch Live
Manchester City vs Chelsea is set to begin at 6pm IST (12.30pm GMT, 7.30am ET). Live streaming and TV information is below.
India: TV: Star Sports Select HD1. Live Streaming: Hotstar.
UK: TV: Sky Sports 1. Live Streaming: Watch Sky Sports.
USA: TV: Telemundo, NBCSN. Live Streaming: NBC Sports Live.
Australia: TV: SBS One and Optus Sport. Live Streaming: Optus Online.
Canada: TV: TSN1, TSN4 and TSN5. Live Streaming: TSN TV.
Germany, Japan: TV: DAZN.
Thailand, Middle East: TV: Bein Sports. Live Streaming: Bein Sports Connect.
China: SS Sports.
Singapore: TV: 102mio Stadium.
Malaysia: TV: Astro SuperSport 3.
Caribbean: TV: Flow Sports.
