The Brazilian winger was a substitute in the Community Shield victory over Manchester United eight days ago but is in Pep Guardiola‘s starting line-up for the 16:30 (UK) kick-off.
City are without Oscar Bobb who suffered a setback in training while Rodrigo is not fully fit after returning to the City Football Academy this week.
The England players that also featured in the EURO 2024 final in Berlin against his triumphant Spain side are on the bench for today’s game.
TEAMS
CHELSEA XI: Sanchez, Gusto, Fofana, Colwill, Cucurella, Lavia, Caicedo, Fernandez (c), Palmer, Nkunku, Jackson
Subs: Jorgensen, Badiashile, Tosin, Veiga, Dewsbury-Hall, Madueke, Mudryk, Neto, Guiu
CITY XI: Ederson, Lewis, Akanji, Dias, Gvardiol, Kovacic, De Bruyne (c), Bernardo, Doku, Savinho, Haaland
Subs: Ortega Moreno, Walker, Stones, Ake, Grealish, Nunes, Foden, O’Reilly, McAtee
TACTICS
There’s no doubting that Rodrigo will be a big miss today with the midfielder among the frontrunners for the Ballon d’Or after winning the European Championship to add to his Premier League winner’s medal from last summer.
But Guardiola has plenty of high quality options to cover his absence with Mateo Kovacic likely to take the deeper holding role against his old club.
The Croatian will have Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva operating in front of him with Savinho and Jeremy Doku able to operate on either flank.
City will start with the same back-four that face United at Wembley with Ederson in goal fresh from his penalty heroics.
Academy players James McAtee and Nico O’Reilly who also impressed in that game are on the bench.
HAALAND HITS A HUNDRED
It doesn’t seem that long ago that we started the season eagerly anticipating the debut of our exciting new signing.
A lot has happened since we saw Erling Haaland in a City shirt for the first time in a competitive game, that was in the Premier League opener against West Ham two years ago.
With two Golden Boots, two Premier League titles, a Champions League, FA Cup, European Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup, the Norwegian has already crammed a lot in, not least 99 matches.
He brings up a landmark century at Stamford Bridge today, aiming to give us a flying start just like he has done in our two previous seasons.
Haaland has scored braces in both of his appearances on the opening weekend - against West Ham in 2022 and Burnley last season, and could set yet another record by becoming the first player ever doing so in three different seasons.
MATCH STATS
Chelsea have not beaten City in our last six Premier League meetings, since a 2-1 away win in May 2021.
Since the UEFA Champions League final in May 2021, City are unbeaten in our last nine meetings with Chelsea in all competitions – our joint longest run without defeat against the Blues in their history (also nine between 1936 and 1949).
No team has earned more points from their opening matches of the Premier League season than Chelsea (67), with only Manchester United picking up more wins (21) than their 20.
This is the first time Chelsea have begun a top-flight campaign with a match against the reigning champions since 1971-72, when they lost 3-0 against Arsenal at Highbury.
City have won our opening Premier League match in 12 of the last 13 seasons, with the exception being a 1-0 loss at Tottenham in 2021/22.
Chelsea lost just one of their last 15 Premier League games in 2023/24 (W9 D5), winning each of the last five in a row. They last had a longer winning run between September and November 2019 under Frank Lampard with six.
City have won each of our last nine Premier League matches by two or more goals, the longest such run in the competition’s history, with our final three wins of 2023/24 all coming against London clubs (4-0 v Fulham, 2-0 v Tottenham, 3-1 v West Ham).
Enzo Maresca will be the fourth manager whose first Premier League game in charge of Chelsea has come against the reigning champions, after Claudio Ranieri in September 2000 (3-3 v Manchester United), Avram Grant in September 2007 (0-2 v Manchester United) and Rafael Benítez in November 2012 (0-0 v City).
Chelsea’s Cole Palmer registered more goal involvements than any other player in the Premier League last season (33 – 22 goals, 11 assists). He was also the competition’s top scorer in home games last term, with his 16 goals the joint-most a player has netted at Stamford Bridge in a single Premier League campaign (Didier Drogba 2006/07 and Frank Lampard 2009/10).
