Manchester City vs Chelsea is the big match of the weekend and with big matches, we love doing a combined XI. It turns out City are a lot better than the Blues, though. Who knew?
GK: Ederson (Manchester City)
Robert Sanchez might be fit for Chelsea again and the only goalkeeper question we don’t know the answer to is who will be starting between himself and Djordje Petrovic. A debate is not to be had for the combined XI. Ederson is miles clear of both.
RB: Kyle Walker (Manchester City)
You know what, why don’t we keep on asking irrelevant questions to make an extremely one-sided combined XI as interesting as possible? Is Kyle Walker the best right-back in Premier League history?
Gary Neville has been a mainstay in the all-time Premier League XI since forever. Walker is putting in a really good case to replace the Manchester United legend, if he hasn’t already.
Oh yeah, he is quite a bit better than Malo Gusto – who has actually been pretty good recently. A fit Reece James would have caused some stress but Walker would still have had the edge. Probably. Only just.
CB: Ruben Dias (Manchester City)
Virgil van Dijk is comfortably the best Premier League centre-back in the last six years and Dias is surely the second best. Who is the third best, though? Cor, that is a toughy. We will leave that one with you.
CB: John Stones (Manchester City)
Who starts next to Stones for England at Euro 2024?
Harry Maguire is proving his worth at club level having barely put a foot wrong for his country. Chelsea’s Levi Colwill is in with a shout. Marc Guehi has been great for Crystal Palace. Fikayo Tomori is a good player, but Gareth Southgate doesn’t really fancy him. Then you have Ezri Konsa and Lewis Dunk.
Oh yeah, this is about a combined XI. Erm…we really like Thiago Silva. He isn’t better than Stones or Dias, though.
LB: Nathan Ake (Manchester City)
Is there a better centre-back playing as a full-back out there? Does Benjamin White count? Probably.
DM: Rodri (Manchester City)
Comparing current players to football legends is a bit taboo, even if said legends are still playing. A Rodri-Sergio Busquets debate would be an interesting one. How dare we compare the two when Busquets won it all with that Barcelona team? Rodri is a bloody fantastic player, that’s why.
You just know there is one fuming Chelsea fan reading this and wondering why Enzo Fernandez is not in ahead of Rodri…
CM: Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City)
We touched on an all-time Premier League XI in the Walker part, so let’s return to that topic now we are on De Bruyne, who is arguably the greatest midfielder in Premier League history. There is no doubt that he is now up there with Paul Scholes, Roy Keane, Patrick Vieira, Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard.
Does the Belgian get into your greatest-ever Our League team? He probably should do, you know.
CM: Bernardo Silva (Manchester City)
Is Enzo vs Bernardo a debate worth having? No. No it is not. The latter might have been double the price, but he is half the player.
AM: Phil Foden (Manchester City)
Chelsea have lots of attacking players and their best has undoubtedly been Cole Palmer, who joined the Blues from City last summer. Despite his excellent form, he is not on the same level as Foden, or the other attacking midfielder in this combined XI.
Foden is the flavour of the month, netting a hat-trick at Brentford and showing incredible consistency and creativity in Pep Guardiola’s team.
Naturally, a great run of form has seen the Bukayo Saka-Phil Foden debate go into overdrive. Both are fantastic players and we should probably enjoy them both instead of wasting our time arguing about who is better. We also shouldn’t waste our time because Saka is definitely better.
AM: Julian Alvarez (Manchester City)
Alvarez is a fantastic player capable of playing in several positions, but which is his best? Should he play just off the striker, as a No. 9, as an out-and-out No. 10, or in midfield? It is one of those unanswerable questions in life. Wherever Pep wants him to play, he will do a job.
Palmer is the only Chelsea player we considering putting in ahead of Alvarez, but we weren’t keen.
ST: Erling Haaland (Manchester City)
£1billion spent and not a single Chelsea player starts for Manchester City. Impressive.
He might be a robot with a blonde wig, but Haaland is a pretty fantastic player. Nicolas Jackson only just misses out here.
