Antonio Conte rues that Kevin de Bruyne is no longer at Chelsea

Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling is major doubt after he was forced off in the win against Burnley last Saturday, while Kevin de Bruyne, John Stones, David Silva and Ilkay Gundogan could earn recalls to the starting line-up.

Guardiola said he has no fresh injury concerns among his squad. “The last five or six weeks they have played fantastic”.

“It is a great test for us, for our formation, to continue this way”, Conte told reporters.

In addition to taking on Chelsea, City also faces matches with Leicester City, Arsenal and Liverpool in December, which Guardiola described as a key month for his team. They were contenders to win the Premier League from the beginning. David Luiz has been Chelsea’s stand out defender since returning to the club and has shown tremendous composure in the heart of the revolutionised defence.

City, who go into the game third in the table and a point behind Chelsea, have drawn their last three in the league at home. I’m taking risks. My confidence is getting better and it’s making me more quick-thinking. But, for me, never do I think about myself.

“It will be a great clash and I would not be surprised to see Chelsea win it”. Pep Guardiola recently stated that, “It is the chance to play the best team at the moment in the Premier League”.

“I know that I put a lot of studying in on football to find a solution, I put a lot of time in my day on my work, and pressure on myself”.

“But we want to show we are working very well and are growing”.

“I don’t think it will help a lot to speak with the players, they play, not me”.

“Chelsea are solid at the back and in the attacking areas they have great players who can win a game”, he said. It’s a pity now he is playing for another team because he’s a fantastic player.

“But we are going to play with the quality players we have, attacking the best way as possible”.

“I’m curious about how we compete, how our football will be against these three or four really good teams”.

He added: “He made an exceptional job in Turin with Juventus and the (Italian) national team as well”. I guess we all know that they were lucky and United were unlucky in the league fixture. Chelsea have won their last seven Premier League games and only conceded once in the same period.

“I’m very happy for him that he’s found stability here in England”. The most organised teams previous year were Leicester and Tottenham, while City were too easily cut through when they didn’t have the ball.

“Chelsea are going to be haunted by what happened to them last season – City completely and utterly outplayed us in both league games”. He politely declined to disclose the names of said players, preferring to keep his silence.