“The difficulty is that all these (Premier League) players are in a rat race and that takes a lot out of the players, which is why you have to rotate and that is what I am doing now because I have to protect my players”, the manager said. Despite being eight points behind leaders Manchester United, the West London club have showed signs in recent weeks that this is a gap that can certainly be closed. Manchester City, which controlled the first half, couldn’t resist and received the first goal of the season in the last minute of first half itself.
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“Then you have to play again mid-week in the Champions League and that is the difference between all the clubs in Europe”.
Chelsea face Porto in the Champions League on Tuesday evening.
“They don’t have a rat race in their competition and that is the difference”.
Familiar group-stage opponents, this will be the seventh time that Arsenal and Olympiakos have met in the Champions League since the 2009/10 season-and amazingly, the team playing at home won all of the previous six.
Manchester City was limited to be able to spend £49 million and they could not spend more than that last season but the ban lifted and they spent the most this season.
Newcastle played really well in the first half against Chelsea and managed to go ahead after a goal by Perez.
Achieving that win in the battle of the acronyms will be a tough ask, though.
As things stand at the moment, United are a point clear of Manchester City in pole position, having picked up 16 points from seven league games so far this season.
“The intensity and physicality of the games is much greater for the English teams than it is for any other team in Europe”.
Galatasaray, though, will feel as though this clash offers the flawless opportunity for a first European win since beating Juventus in a weather-affected match which took two days to complete in December 2013. Then we come to the game on Saturday.
The weekend slip-up at Villarreal wasn’t exactly on the cards for Diego Simeone and Atletico Madrid, but they can rely on a formidable home European record when Benfica come to the Vicente Calderon.
The Portuguese visitors would be delighted with a draw following their opening win over Astana, but they are unlikely to get it.
“Manchester United and Manchester City are also under the cosh after losing their opening games and have no margin for error against Wolfsburg and Borussia Monchengaldbach this week”.
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It was De Bruyne third goal in as many games as he tries to lead the Citizens to the win despite the continuing lackluster performance of fellow newcomer Raheem Sterling, who has only one goal in four appearances so far for Pellegrini.
