Manchester City 1-3 Chelsea: Premier League as it happened

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Manchester City 1-3 Chelsea

There will be no shortage of fallout from what could arguably be labelled as the best Premier League match of the season so far. However, there is no time to dwell on that as we head to White Hart Lane for live coverage of Tottenham vs Swansea.

I hope you join me for that one.

City have absolutely lost the plot here. Aguero gets shoved to the ground by Chalobah and sparks chaotic scenes after jumping into a truly hideous, knee-high challenge that wipes out Luiz. You've got to think that could incur more than just a standard three-match ban for violent conduct.

Fernandinho also receives his marching orders after clashing with Fabregas, who ended up in the crowd. A really unsavoury finish to an otherwise extremely enjoyable game.

Red card: Fernandinho (Manchester City)

Red card: Sergio Aguero (Manchester City)

Bravo thwarts Willian and Hazard gets a sterling reception from the jubilant travelling fans as he goes off to be replaced by striker Michy Batshuayi.

Just before the fourth official signals six minutes of added time, Chelsea wrap up their eighth successive Premier League victory.

Chalobah dispossesses fellow substitute Iheanacho and Alonso clips an enticing through ball forward for Hazard. The Belgian's first touch leaves Kolarov behind and he makes no mistake with the finish.

A devastating counter.

Goal: Manchester City 1-3 Chelsea (Eden Hazard)

Another small opening for Iheanacho after a poor defensive header from Luiz, but his shot is wild and sails well wide.

Iheanacho runs to the front post and gets across Kante before heading Silva's corner over.

Navas is cautioned for a shirt pull on Hazard and Cahill comes within a whisker of making contact with the Belgian's free-kick.

A period of City pressing is interrupted as Costa goes down at the other end of the pitch and limps towards the sideline after signalling that he needs to be substituted.

Chelsea will pray that is nothing serious. Nathaniel Chalobah comes on.

City fans appeal in vain for a spot-kick twice in succession. First they believe Luiz has blocked a cross with his arm and then Navas tumbles very theatrically under minimal contact from Alonso.

Otamendi then rises above Luiz to head De Bruyne's free-kick over the crossbar.

We are into the last 10 minutes at the Etihad.

Guardiola has sent on Yaya Toure and Kelechi Iheanacho in pursuit of an equaliser. Gundogan and Stones make way.

That is all three of his available substitutions used.

A massive twist in the tale. Alonso and Fabregas combine to hastily clear their lines after Gundogan slaloms his way to the byline.

Chelsea counter swiftly and more good forward play from Costa to negate the disappointing Otamendi sets Willian free down the right. He then keeps his nerve to put the visitors ahead for the first time this afternoon.

The Brazilian celebrates his third goal of 2015/16 alongside compatriot Luiz. The pair hold up their black 'ForcaChape' armbands in front of the travelling fans.

Goal: Manchester City 1-2 Chelsea (Willian)

Guardiola makes his first change of the afternoon, with Clichy replacing Sane.

Moses to the rescue for Chelsea. The Nigerian wing-back shows superb defensive nous to nip in front of Aguero and prevent him from tapping home De Bruyne's latest cross.

This is turning into a real barnstormer. Aguero goes through on goal and looks likely to restore City's lead, but he delays his shot and Courtois stays alert to make the save.

Breathless, end-to-end stuff at the Etihad.

City have been dominant in this second half, but all their hard work is undone by an excellent long pass forward from Fabregas.

Costa chests it down and shrugs off the attentions of Otamendi with typical strength before rifling a shot past Bravo. That is his 11th goal of the season so far.

Game on.

Goal: Manchester City 1-1 Chelsea (Diego Costa)

Aguero is the latest player to need treatment after being stepped on by Luiz at a corner.

Rampant City then slice Chelsea apart with a gorgeous attacking move that ends with De Bruyne smashing Navas' low pass against the crossbar from extremely close range.

How did he miss that?!

Alonso places Chelsea in serious danger with a terrible pass that Cahill allows to run through to Courtois, seemingly without realising that Aguero is lurking.

The England defender recovers to block Aguero's shot before it can double City's lead.

Pedro does not seem to have recovered from that first-half knock and Conte sends on Willian in his place.

The Brazilian looks to make a quick impact with a promising run but his subsequent shot is insipid and dragged well wide.

The rapid Sane bursts through the middle of the pitch before teeing up De Bruyne, whose low shot from a tricky angle is saved by Courtois.

At the other end, Costa produces a rare miscue under pressure from Stones after being played in by Moses.

Kante has been retrospectively booked for a late challenge on Silva.

The second half is now off and running. No changes from either manager at the interval.

Half-time

Manchester City 1-0 Chelsea

Another City penalty appeal is waved away as Kante goes in hard on Gundogan.

Such frustration proves to be shortlived, however, as they take the lead through an own goal. After a good period of pressure and probing, the ball is worked wide to Navas, who proceeds to run at Alonso.

The inconsistent winger certainly does not possess the same reputation for crossing as De Bruyne, but this time a delivery that fails to clear the first man proves to be an advantage as the hapless Cahill inexplicably tries to clear away with his right foot and ends up dispatching the ball past Courtois in comical fashion. Awful defending.

A City opener had been coming.

Goal: Manchester City 1-0 Chelsea (Gary Cahill)

No-one in the Premier League can cross a football quite like De Bruyne.

The talented Belgian receives possession from Navas and whips in another delicious right-footed ball that Aguero, having stepped inside Moses, heads just wide.

Moses is caught ball watching on an expert lofted pass from Silva. Sane taps it inside to Aguero, whose goal-bound strike is blocked by Azpilicueta.

Luiz is a lucky man. After Azpilicueta makes a hash of a long diagonal pass, the Brazilian slyly body-checks Aguero to stop his run and send him tumbling.

Taylor looked like he was going to blow up and go to his pocket before deciding to signal play on. Guardiola expresses his anger as boos ring out around the Etihad.

That was a moment of real controversy and, as a last-man offence outside the penalty area, should have warranted a red card. Not a lot of contact by any means, but surely deliberate.

City also try their luck down the left channel. Aguero looks to get in behind Luiz but his lob fails to trouble Courtois, who initially looked set to come racing out before eventually thinking better of it.

Just seconds after having a goal disallowed at one end, City are left all at sea as Otamendi gets caught under an excellent sweeping pass from Fabregas.

Hazard successfully negotiates his way past Claudio Bravo, but just lets the ball roll too far for a shot and his attempted pass across towards Pedro is crucially steered away by Kolarov.

Goa...no!

De Bruyne's wicked free-kick is headed emphatically into the bottom corner by Fernandinho.

However, the assistant referee has his flag raised for offside. He made his run just a fraction too early.

Pedro needs treatment now after appearing to have his achilles trodden on during a chase with Aguero.

Aleksandar Kolarov comes forward down the left and feeds a useful pass inside to Aguero.

The prolific Argentine quickly shifts the ball onto his left foot and unleashes a powerful drive that is tapped over the crossbar by Courtois.

Hazard flashes a low drive wide from 25 yards after a good lay-off from Pedro intended for Costa.

Luiz then cleans up for Chelsea and Otamendi is rather harshly booked for a robust sliding challenge on Alonso.

Chelsea look to create an early chance but Marcos Alonso's near-post cross is headed away by Stones.

We then have a stoppage in play with two City players on the ground. Aguero took a sore knock to the foot from Cahill and Fernandinho hurt himself while clearly impeding a marauding Victor Moses.

Taylor wanted to play the advantage initially.

Chelsea's previously stout three-man defence is looking a little ragged early on. Both Cahill and Azpilicueta put the ball out under pressure from Silva and Aguero.

Panic stations for Stones as he tries to play his way out of trouble in trademark style but ends up being dispossessed in the box by a determined Costa.

Luckily for him, Pedro's subsequent cutback is intercepted and cleared by Gundogan.

The first corner of the match produces nothing as City take it short and are quickly forced away from danger.

The home crowd then appeal strongly for a penalty after Cahill slides in on Silva and accidentally touches the ball with his arm. Taylor shakes his head.

David Luiz takes something of a risk by allowing De Bruyne's teasing through ball towards Aguero to run through to Thibaut Courtois.

Hazard, meanwhile, looks to have recovered swiftly from that painful knock as he looks to set up Costa and terrorises Otamendi before a rogue pass picks out Navas.

Some early concern for Conte as Eden Hazard goes down in a heap after being inadvertently trodden on during a collision with Fernandinho.

He receives treatment as Guardiola relays some early tactical instruction to Stones, who is lining up in the centre of that three-man backline with Nicolas Otamendi on the right.

After an impeccably observed minute's silence, referee Anthony Taylor gets the game underway.

Both teams are donning their home strips, with City kicking from left to right in this first half.

Speaking on his arrival at the Etihad, stand-in Chelsea captain Gary Cahill sounded confident that his side's seven-game winning streak was set to be extended.

"It's one of the toughest places to come but we're confident," he said. "It's easier to play in a winning team. Momentum brings confidence. We're in a good place and we want that to continue."

Guardiola was not giving much away with regards to the benefits of that formation during his pre-game interview.

He also revealed that Sterling tried to train yesterday after taking a bang to the knee against Burnley but felt discomfort before failing a fitness test.

City's players are warming up in t-shirts to commemorate the victims of Monday night's disaster that saw 71 people - including 19 members of the Chapecoense football team - killed in a plane crash in Colombia.

A minute's silence will be held ahead of every Premier League match this weekend.

Christian Eriksen's tremendous early strike for Tottenham was the first and only goal that Chelsea have conceded in their last seven Premier League matches.

Their defensive frugality is sure to be sorely tested here, however, with Sergio Aguero having netted four goals in his last two top-flight appearances against today's opponents.

This could well develop into a battle between the league's joint-top scorers. Both Aguero and Diego Costa have netted 10 times already so far this term.

Conte confirms in his pre-match interview with Sky Sports that Matic has sustained a little muscular injury.

The Italian also reiterated his trust in Fabregas, who has been linked with a move away from Stamford Bridge in recent weeks, and claimed that he is in good shape.

It has been a difficult campaign thus far for Fabregas. Hampered by his own muscle injury, the Spaniard has not played a single minute of competitive action since September's humiliating defeat to Arsenal after being left as an unused substitute against Hull and more recently in back-to-back wins over Middlesbrough and Tottenham.

How well he is able to adapt and deputise for a rejuvenated Matic, who does a lot of defensive work alongside N'Golo Kante in addition to picking up six assists, could go a long way to deciding how Chelsea fare this afternoon.

Ever the bold tactician, Guardiola looks set to implement a 3-2-4-1 system in order to attempt to nullify Chelsea's obvious strengths.

He makes six attacking changes from the side that came from behind to beat Burnley at Turf Moor and, courtesy of a goal in each half from Sergio Aguero, claimed consecutive Premier League wins for the first time since September.

Stones, Ilkay Gundogan, Jesus Navas, Silva, De Bruyne and Leroy Sane all return at the expense of Bacary Sagna, Gael Clichy, Yaya Toure, Fernando, Raheem Sterling and Nolito.

City have confirmed that while Nolito is simply being rested, Sterling actually failed a fitness test.

Chelsea make their first change for six matches. Cesc Fabregas comes in to register just his second Premier League start of the season as Nemanja Matic misses out through injury.

Conte also names young right-back Ola Aina as a substitute.

Chelsea XI: Courtois, Azpilicueta, Luiz, Cahill (c), Moses, Kante, Fabregas, Alonso, Pedro, Costa, Hazard

Subs: Begovic, Ivanovic, Aina, Chalobah, Oscar, Willian, Batshuayi

Manchester City XI: Bravo, Stones, Otamendi, Kolarov, Fernandinho, Gundogan, Navas, Sane, Silva (c), De Bruyne, Aguero

Subs: Caballero, Zabaleta, Sagna, Clichy, Toure, Fernando, Iheanacho

The teams are in...

It is worth noting that if those unnamed players referenced by Conte are declared fit to feature, then Chelsea are likely to send out an unchanged starting XI for the seventh league match in a row.

They have made the fewest personnel changes of any Premier League side so far this season, while City currently lie at the other end of that spectrum having made a whopping total of 40 alterations since the opening day of the season.

Antonio Conte was rather coy with his injury update during yesterday's pre-match press conference, revealing only that Chelsea "have to check on the physical condition of one or two players and then tomorrow decide the line-up."

When pressed as to the identity of those possible absentees, he simply replied: "I prefer to keep this a secret."

One player who definitely will not feature for the visitors is Kompany's opposite number, John Terry. The veteran centre-back was ruled out for two to three weeks after suffering a muscular problem in his gluteus while appearing in a strong U23 team that defeated Southampton at Cobham.

Midfield outcast Mikel John Obi has also been struggling with a muscle issue.

City remain without the services of Vincent Kompany today. The injury-stricken City captain is expected to be sidelined for up to six weeks as the result of knee ligament damage sustained in last month's 2-1 win at Crystal Palace.

However, the likes of John Stones, former Chelsea playmaker Kevin de Bruyne and David Silva will all be in contention to return after being rested for the recent win over Burnley as manager Pep Guardiola searched for "fresh legs" and demonstrated the strength of depth available in his expensively assembled squad.

Fabian Delph is also fit again after recovering from surgery on a long-term groin injury that had kept him out since August.

Good afternoon and welcome to IBTimes UK's first live coverage of a bumper day of Premier League football.

Tottenham vs Swansea and West Ham vs Arsenal are both on the agenda for later this afternoon, but first we go to the Etihad Stadium for arguably the main event of the weekend as leaders Chelsea look to seal an eighth consecutive top-flight win against fellow title contenders Manchester City in an intriguing heavyweight showdown.

We will cover all of the relevant injury lines, team news and confirmed lineups before providing frequent updates after kick-off at 12.30 GMT. This is one you won't want to miss, so stay tuned.