The machinations of the fixture fixer has already thrown up a mouth watering encounter on just the second weekend of the new EPL season as Manchester City will host current title champions, Chelsea, this Sunday afternoon (Kick-off 11am ET).

Inevitably, almost enticingly, Chelsea's season has begun with a wobble both on and off the field of play. Having only managed a two all draw against the Welsh wonders from Swansea and seeing their goal keeper receive the first red card of the season, Jose Mourinho has been kept tabloid busy as a result of his very public spat with the club medic, Eva Carneiro.

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However, Jose Mourinho is a master technician and an astute tactician. It is not inconceivable that 'medic-gate' could, arguably, be the special one's way of deflecting attention away from his team's result in order to properly prepare them for this weekend's mammoth encounter - without having to publicly admit the importance of only the second game of the season.

Obviously, it is only the second round of a 38 game season but already Manchester City have the opportunity to open a five point gap on the champions. Regardless of how the managers might downplay this fixture at such an early stage, they both know, and understand the implications of this fixture and how important points lost or gained this weekend might prove to be next May.

As a result of his red card, Chelsea goalkeeper Courtois will be serving his mandatory one game suspension which means Asmir Begovic will be between the sticks for the London club. More significantly however, is the conjecture as to whether Sergio Aguero will start against Chelsea as the Golden Boot winner continues on his journey to full fitness following his Copa America exploits. Based on the cliched mantra of the season being a marathon and not a sprint, it would seem unlikely that City chieftain, Pellegrini, will want to risk the long term viability of his prolific striker and may only continue to use the Argentinian as a substitute.

Pellegrini's new contract, new super signing Raheem Sterling and the Sky Blues very impressive display against West Brom, will create an undoubtedly undaunted air of optimism for the Manchester side. This accumulation means that City are probably the slight favorites going into this one, but we think Chelsea will raise their game from last week. They have been asked to prove early that they are worthy champions elect, and this is something we've seen them do before.

We would expect Mourinho to instill one command into his troops - do not lose. Their defensive prowess won them the title last year and we would expect a "win-would-be-super-but-at-all-costs-do-not-lose" approach from Chelsea.  Despite the current optimism permeating the Etihad Stadium we think that Chelsea will be able come away from this titanic game with a draw.

One interesting statistic;  Chelsea have not lost in the last 27 league games that they have played on a Sunday.

Prediction; Manchester City 1 Chelsea 1 

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