Kolo Toure believes Manchester City (12/1 to win 2010-11 Premier League title) are capable of ending Chelsea’s unbeaten start to the season and feels stopping Didier Drogba is the key.
City are up to fourth in the Premier League following their win at Wigan last weekend – seven points behind Carlo Ancelotti’s men.
The defending champions have made a faultless start to the season, with five wins out of five, but they face their toughest test yet as they travel to Eastlands on Saturday (Man City 21/10, Draw 9/4, Chelsea 6/5 – Match Betting).
City (4/6 Top Four Finish) beat Chelsea home and away last season and Toure admits confidence is high that they can claim the three points again this weekend.
The former Arsenal man said: “We need to make sure we take something from it. If we can get one point that would be great, but if we can get all three like we did twice last season, that would be fantastic.”
Toure has revealed that Roberto Mancini has had his squad working hard in training on the defensive side of the game, which looks to be paying dividends.
City have conceded just two goals in their opening five matches and will need to be at their best again to keep the free-scoring Chelsea at bay.
Toure has pinpointed Ivory Coast team-mate Drogba (6/4f to be 2010-11 Premier League Top Scorer) as the main danger for Mancini?s men and feels the Chelsea striker has been better than ever this season.
The centre-back added: “It seems like he’s getting better with age because he’s such an intelligent player. He’s had to change his game. He knows he needs more help from his team-mates now.”
“I know his game well, but he’s still difficult to play against because he’s so powerful,” he said. “He’s playing so well and with all these assists, he seems to have improved his style of playing.
“At the moment, I’d say he’s on fire. So we’re going to have to defend really well as a team to stop him. We’re going to have to be really strong on Saturday.”
Meanwhile, Roberto Mancini has played down suggestions of a bust-up with Emmanuel Adebayor.
There have been suggestions that the City boss had a row with Adebayor regarding the striker’s current injury – with a dead leg seeing him miss the last three games.
Mancini says the former Arsenal striker trained with the squad on Monday and could come into contention for the visit of the league leaders (Both Teams To Score – 5/6).
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