{"id":26226,"date":"2026-04-10T21:27:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T21:27:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo76e71539\/2026\/04\/10\/donnarumma-to-start-trafford-on-the-bench-4-2-3-1-manchester-city-predicted-lineup-vs-chelsea\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T21:27:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T21:27:06","slug":"donnarumma-to-start-trafford-on-the-bench-4-2-3-1-manchester-city-predicted-lineup-vs-chelsea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo76e71539\/2026\/04\/10\/donnarumma-to-start-trafford-on-the-bench-4-2-3-1-manchester-city-predicted-lineup-vs-chelsea\/","title":{"rendered":"Donnarumma To Start, Trafford On The Bench | 4-2-3-1 Manchester City Predicted Lineup Vs Chelsea"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Manchester City will face off against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge this Sunday as they look to secure all three points on the road in the Premier League. The Mancunian club managed to secure a dominant 4-0 win over Liverpool in the FA Cup recently, which should keep them in good spirits going into this game.<\/p>\n

Pep Guardiola will set his men up in a 4-2-3-1 formation and is expected to make one change to his first team for this clash. Gianluigi Donnarumma could play from the start of this game, while James Trafford makes way for him and drops to the bench.<\/p>\n

Defence<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Gianluigi Donnarumma will operate in between the sticks for the Mancunian club as he looks to keep a clean sheet away from home. Abdukodir Khusanov will function alongside Marc Guehi at the heart of the Man City backline as they look to keep a solid shape on the defensive end of the field.<\/p>\n

Matheus Nunes will try to put in a good performance as the right-back, while Nico O\u2019Reilly looks to give a good account of himself on the other side as the left-back. Both of them will have to perform their defensive duties well before trying to offer support to their teammates up top.<\/p>\n

Nathan Ake will offer cover for the defensive positions on the bench.<\/p>\n

\"Manchester
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND \u2013 APRIL 04: Antoine Semenyo of Manchester City celebrates scoring his team\u2019s third goal during the Emirates FA Cup Quarter Final match between Manchester City and Liverpool at Etihad Stadium on April 04, 2026 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Carl Recine\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Midfield<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Rodri and Bernardo Silva will operate as the holding midfielders as they focus on establishing their superiority over the opposition at the centre of the park.<\/p>\n

The talented trio of Jeremy Doku, Rayan Cherki and Antoine Semenyo will play just ahead of them as part of the Man City<\/a> attack. All three of them need to link up with each other well if they want to engineer enough clear-cut chances for the Mancunian outfit to win this contest.<\/p>\n

Tijjani Reijnders and Nico Gonzalez will have to be content with a spot on the bench as they await their chance to influence the game in the second 45 minutes if required.<\/p>\n

Attack<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Erling Haaland will spearhead Man City\u2019s attack up top. He managed to bag a hat-trick against Liverpool, which should give him a ton of confidence ahead of this game.<\/p>\n

Omar Marmoush will be named on the bench and might come on to make an impact in the latter stages of the game if needed.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Manchester City will face off against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge this Sunday as they look to secure all three points on the road in the Premier League. The Mancunian club managed to secure a dominant 4-0 win over Liverpool in the FA Cup recently, which should keep them in good spirits going into this game. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12815,"featured_media":26227,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo76e71539\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo76e71539\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo76e71539\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo76e71539\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12815"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo76e71539\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo76e71539\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo76e71539\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo76e71539\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo76e71539\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo76e71539\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}