EPL Odds: Man City, Chelsea Play for Top Spot

Manchester City (+110) vs Chelsea (+230), Draw (+250)

Manchester City (8-3-1, 27 points) will travel to Stamford Bridge on December 3 to take on the current leader, Chelsea (9-1-2, 28 points). Only one point separates Antonio Conte’s boys from Pep Guardiola’s, and the winner of next week’s game could determine who takes the top spot.

Both teams are off to a great start to the 2016-17 season, with Chelsea in first place and City one point behind in third. Both teams are also adjusting well to their new managers. Manchester City let go of Manuel Pellegrini for Bayern Munich’s Pep Guardiola, and Chelsea dumped Jose Mourinho for Conte.

Conte’s 3-4-3 formation has allowed Chelsea to play a more free-flowing game compared to last year’s side. David Luiz is able to forgo some of his defensive duties and press forward; Eden Hazard now has more movement down the wing; and Nemanja Matic can focus on his role as a playmaker. It’s a formation tailored to the strengths of the Chelsea players.

Guardiola’s philosophy is completely different. He likes to impose his possession-based style of play on every team he manages. He developed and perfected it at Barcelona, refined it at Bayern Munich, and now he’s implementing it at Manchester City. He’s forced his players to adapt to his system and cut those who couldn’t adjust.

Both Managers have been successful. Guardiola took Pellegrini’s team, which was already doing very well, and has turned it into a side with a real shot at the Premiership and Champions League. Conte took a broken Chelsea and completely turned them around.

Chelsea recently thrashed Everton, 5-0, in what is undoubtedly the strongest performance we’ve seen from a Premier League team this season. Prior to that, they dismantled Manchester United, 4-0.

Manchester City have not been at their best these last few weeks, but did manage to beat Barcelona, 3-1, in a Champions League group stage match.

The Mourinho-Guardiola rivalry was the dominant storyline heading into the 2016-17 season. But as United continues to tank under Mourinho, the Conte-Guardiola fight has become the one to watch. And Conte is having the better go of it at the moment. There’s value on the road Blues.

Pick: Chelsea (+230)

Photo credit: “Chelsea FC (and Spain) striker Diego Costa” by Ben Sutherland, CC BY-SA 2.0 [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0], via Flickr.