By Gerry Crisandy

Opta predicts Chelsea vs Manchester City despite postponement

Opta Sports have made predictions for the 10 Premier League matches that were postponed between March 20 to 22, including Chelsea’s clash with Manchester City.

The analytics company’s feature, Opta Predictor, estimates the probability of each match outcome factoring in each team’s offensive and defensive quality.

According to Opta, those qualities are based on four years of historic results, with more weighting given to their most recent results.

The model will take into account the quality of opposition that a team scores or concedes against and reward them accordingly.

And the prediction says Manchester City will have a bigger chance of beating Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

It predicts Chelsea will have 30% of winning, a 24% chance of a draw, while Manchester City are likely to win with a win probability of 46%.

It is not surprising as Manchester City are the second-best team in the Premier League performance-wise, edging out Chelsea by nine points in the table, with one game in hand.

In the reverse fixture in November, Chelsea tasted a 2-1 defeat at Etihad.

N’Golo Kante put the Blues ahead, but Manchester City completed a comeback victory through one goal apiece by Kevin de Bruyne and Riyad Mahrez.

It was a close game, though.

Manchester City only had 46.74% possession in that game, the lowest ever recorded by a team managed by Guardiola in 381 matches.

Opta may tip Manchester City to claim another victory against Chelsea, but they surely do not consider Christian Pulisic, Tammy Abraham, Ruben Loftus Cheek and N’Golo Kante’s comeback from injury, do they?

Regardless of Opta’s prediction, the game sadly won’t take place as the global health pandemic continues.

Gerry Crisandy

A Chelsea fan who loves football statistics. Studied sports journalism at the University of Sunderland.