Its been a dramatic week in English football as Chelsea and Manchester City face each other in a top table clash at the end of a crazy week. Both sides come into the game on the backs of poor results in the champions league and the controversial sacking of Chelsea manager, Roberto di Matteo.

Benitez vs Mancini

It’s amazing how fast things can change. For the first 6 weeks of the season, Chelsea were flying high and di Matteo was being lauded for what a fantastic job he was doing. With a frontline of Edin Hazard, Oscar, Juan Mata and Fernando Torres, Chelsea were unstoppable, playing the most attractive soccer in the league.

After a Champions league defeat in Italy, against Juventus however, Chelsea find themselves on the verge of being knocked out, and the possibility of their advancement is no longer in their hands. If they do not advance, it will be the first time that the reigning champs have failed to do so.

Their recent form has been poor, especially defensively, where they have missed influential Captain John Terry, who has been serving a 4 game ban. In his absence, the once impenetrable Chelsea defense had looked very brittle and has been leaking goals like relegation candidates. The pressure was definitely on.

The champions league result in Italy was the final straw for their demanding billionaire Russian oligarch owner, Roman Abramovich, as the underperforming di Matteo was sacked even before the plane touched down on their return from 3-0 loss in Italy. It had been a tough month for Chelsea and Di Matteo, as Chelsea had picked up only 2 points in 4 games, including losses to Manchester United and WBA and draws against Liverpool and Swansea. A run of form that has seen then drop from 1st to 3rd place.

In Di Matteo’s place Chelsea have turned to Rafael Benitez, who himself has been out of the game since his lack of success and sacking at Inter Milan, where he stepped in for another Chelsea old boy, Jose Mourinho, and failed horribly in replicating the success of the “Special One’.

Things have not been all rosy in Manchester either. For the second year in a row, Manchester City have failed to get out of the group stages of the champions league, eliminated this week after their 1-1 draw with Real Madrid.

In the league, City’s form has been less than stellar and manager Roberto Mancini has been looking more and more frustrated and detached on the sideline. Their league form has been patchy at best, even as they come into the game on the backs of a 5-0 thrashing of Aston Villa. The rumors are swirling about dissension among the ranks and player frustration at city. All of this is not good as recent news came out about how Mancini had been job hunting prior to City winning last years the EPL championship.

Both teams will need to refocus and get themselves prepared for this top table league clash as the two of the richest clubs in the world square off as there maybe another top manager sacked.