Manchester City vs Chelsea (Pre-Season Friendly): Match Preview, Team News, Head to Head, How to Watch

Manchester City will round off their 2024 pre-season tour of the United States this weekend with a meeting against Premier League rivals Chelsea in Columbus, Ohio.

Pep Guardiola and his players are yet to record an official victory Stateside this summer, despite plenty of positive emerging from the performances in their three warm-up matches thus far, both collectively and individually.

The latest meeting came against FC Barcelona in Orlando, Florida, with the La Liga giants being held to a 2-2 draw in regulation time, but emerging as victors in a traditional penalty shoot-out to decide an outcome.

Nico O’Reilly became the latest Manchester City youth talent to stand out amongst the Academy contingent on tour with Pep Guardiola’s side, with the Catalan coach subsequently highlighting the versatile midfielder as a candidate to act as back-up to Rodrigo this season.

City now travel north again along the east of the United States, as they touchdown in Columbus, Ohio for a meeting against their Premier League opening weekend opponents Chelsea.

Enzo Maresca’s side have endured a mixed bag of results themselves this summer, drawing their first game in a 2-2 meeting with Wrexham, before succumbing to a heavy defeat at the hands of Celtic in a 1-4 loss, only to rectify their errors with a 3-0 win over Club America.

Ahead of Manchester City’s final outing in the United States this summer, here is everything you need to know as Pep Guardiola’s side take on Chelsea in pre-season friendly number four Stateside!

Match Details

Manchester City take on Chelsea at Ohio Stadium, Columbus, Ohio on Saturday 3rd August, with kick-off scheduled for approximately 22:30 BST, and 17:30 EDT.

Team News

Manchester City have sustained their first injury concerns of the 2024/25 season this week following their 2-2 draw and penalty shoot-out defeat to FC Barcelona, with Pep Guardiola offering insight in Orlando.

Speaking after the contest, the Manchester City manager revealed that striker Erling Haaland had suffered from ‘muscular niggles’ at Camping World Stadium, forcing a withdrawal from action at the half-time interval.

“Erling is not comfortable,” Guardiola said during his post-match conversations with reporters earlier this week. “We don’t want to take risks. But sooner or later he has to take a step with training and minutes.”

You can read Pep Guardiola’s full quotes on Erling Haaland’s fitness setback below!

Head To Head

Unlike the other three meetings this summer, Manchester City and Chelsea certainly know each other all too well, having met a total of 178 times across their respective competitive histories in English football.

In that time, Manchester City have emerged victorious on 65 occasions, drawing 42 of the meeting with Chelsea, and with the Stamford Bridge club recording wins 71 times.

Manchester City and Chelsea met three times across all competitions last season, playing out an enthralling 4-4 draw at Stamford Bridge in Premier League action, before clashing over a 2-2 stalemate in the reverse meeting at the Etihad Stadium.

The third and final, as well as the most recent, meeting came in the semi-finals of the Emirates FA Cup, with Bernardo Silva scoring a later effort to claim Manchester City’s place in a showpiece final against Manchester United.

This will also be the first meeting between Pep Guardiola and Enzo Maresca, following the Italian’s departure from his role as Manchester City assistant coach to take up the head coach job at Leicester City, before repositioning at Chelsea ahead of the forthcoming campaign.

How To Watch

Saturday night’s match against Chelsea will be live streamed on the official Manchester City website on City+, while full global TV listings are available HERE.

City Xtra will also be providing live coverage of the match on all of our social media channels, with a live watchalong show presented by Jordan Rothwell available on YouTube.