Chelsea v Everton & Stoke v Man City - Could Chelsea extend their lead to NINE points?

After a pivotal weekend in the Premier League with Chelsea picking up three points at Aston Villa and Manchester City dropping two at home to Hull City, we go again with two more big, big games.

Chelsea face Everton at Stamford Bridge as Manchester City face Stoke City away and I am almost certain there are points to be dropped. The question is will Manchester City fall even further behind in the title race?

Chelsea v Everton: 

The advantage is ours and at home, in a midweek game with virtually everyone fit, I can only see Chelsea winning a tight game against an Everton side that have a poor record at Stamford Bridge with their last victory being back in November 1994.

I have said it yesterday and my thought process remains the same, I really hope that the boss decides to give Loic Remy the start up front ahead of Didier Drogba for reasons given in this post.

Chelsea have the quality and the ability to go out there tonight to get the job done. We just need to maintain focus and concentrate on taking things one game at a time as we are fortune to be in the position that other results do not affect us at this stage.

Don't get me wrong, I realise this is Everton and they will come to the Bridge organised and ready to make life difficult. However, I firmly believe personally that the Everton you play against at Goodison Park is a different animal to the side you face at your own ground.

Stoke City v Manchester City:

So what of Manchester City's trip to Stoke? Well history tells you that the visitors have a poor record against Stoke and I fully expect it to be the same again this evening.

Without question the absence of Yaya Toure has played a huge part in their dip in form with their performance against Hull at the weekend the perfect example.

It's difficult to imagine really after the City performance at Stamford Bridge. They bossed it that day and should have taken three points but for the fact they were playing against a well organised and disciplined Chelsea team.

The pressure tonight is really on City and Frank Lampard has even admitted ahead of the game:

"If you look at the points, the form of Chelsea and the teams behind us, we are going to have to keep winning regularly. It's common sense that we need to go on a real strong run now."

However, Stoke at the Britannia is no easy game and the home side will make life more than difficult for Pellegrini's men.

Of course they have the players to go there and win the game but we can all agree that they have stuttered of late and some of their defensive performances have not been anywhere near as good as you would expect.

Conclusions and score predictions: 

As I have said based on Everton's record at the Bridge and our fantastic home form this season, I can only see three points for Chelsea tonight. Now whether that is by the odd goal or more I am not so sure.

Chelsea to win 1-0.

As for City, I believe they will have a really hard game tonight and I predict that Stoke will not lose this one and will have too much for City to cope with up front.

Stoke City 1-1 Manchester City. 

Chelsea will extend their lead to NINE points tonight! What do you people think?