Manchester City vs Chelsea verdict, predicted score, key stats and suggested bets

Frank Lampard's Chelsea are the next team to face Pep Guardiola's in-form Manchester City troops on Sunday, when the hosts are expected to secure a comfortable victory.

Premier League, Sunday May 21, Kick-off 4pm, Live on Sky Sports Main Event

Manchester City -2 Asian handicap

Manchester City win to nil

Kevin de Bruyne to score and assist

Manchester City have won their last 16 home matches, a run which started by beating Chelsea 4-0 in the FA Cup.

Kevin de Bruyne has scored seven goals and laid on 10 assists in his last 15 starts.

Manchester City have won their last five matches against Chelsea without conceding a goal.

Chelsea have failed to score 20 times this season, with 12 of their 17 away goals coming against sides in the relegation battle.

Nathan Ake (thigh) has resumed some sort of training but is expected to miss this game. Other than that, Man City have a clean bill of health.

Riyad Mahrez is likely to rotate back into the side given his Premier League form, while Phil Foden is also an option to freshen things up.

Armando Broja (knee), Reece James (thigh), N'Golo Kante (groin), Mason Mount (groin), Marc Cucurella (thigh) and Ben Chilwell (thigh) are likely to miss out. Marcus Bettinelli is out for the season.

Kalidou Koulibaly (thigh) and Mateo Kovacic (muscle) have been involved in training recently but will be assessed nearer to the game.

Manchester City have two opportunities to claim the title this weekend. If Arsenal slip up at Nottingham Forest they'll be crowned champions. If not, they can mathematically secure it with a win on Sunday.

Given City's form in recent weeks there's no question of them letting first place slip and they'll be keen to wrap it up as soon as possible with a Champions League final on the horizon.

Visitors Chelsea have endured an awful season by the club standards and for the second time, having Frank Lampard as manager hasn't worked. They've won once in 11 matches.

This will be the fourth meeting of the sides so far this season, with City winning 4-0, 2-0 and 1-0. They've now won five straight meetings without conceding a goal.

Guardiola's side have now won 16 consecutive home matches, a run which started with a 4-0 win over Chelsea in the FA Cup. They've shut out the opposition 10 times and have outscored their opponents by an average of 3.06 goals per game.

Chelsea's failings are most apparent on the road. They've only been hammered twice, losing 3-0 to Leeds and 4-1 to Brighton, but they've failed to win 12 of their 17 away matches.

Scoring has been a problem and given Man City's defensive record at home, it's worth noting that the Blues have failed to score in 11 away matches. Overall, they've scored five in 13 meetings with the top seven sides.

Manchester City have blown a few teams away in the first half recently, including Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, and they'd probably like to wrap this one up quickly.

We think that Chelsea's incohesive front line will make for a lack of opportunity and lead to wave after wave of City attacks. If a weakened Blues defence crack early, they could well crack often.

Manchester City winning with a clean sheet seems likely and if they get a goal early enough, it's hard to imagine them not pulling away and adding to the score, so we'll take a chance on the -2 Asian handicap.