A war which has steamrolled all in its wake and only earlier this week gained new vigour will come to a head at the Bridge on Saturday morning as the battles between Team Terry and Team Bridge ( otherwise known as Chelsea and Man City ) commences.

The glare of the media spotlight will be firmly fixated on the pre match handshake , if the Sunday backpages have their main picture as something other than the Terry and Bridge handshake then I’ll eat my own hat. The lucky coincidence in naming issues has led to this one being called “ The Battle of The Bridge “

Other than these two duelling love interests meeting for the first time , you may be surprised to learn that a game of football will also be taking place following the already infamous handshake as John Terry’s Chelsea looks to re-stretch Chelsea’s lead at the top of the table to four points against Wayne Bridge’s faltering City side.

In the last four games City have only managed three goals , one of those games including an atrocious 0-0 against Liverpool , this was the first football game my younger brother had ever went to and upon his return home I couldn’t do anything but laugh at him for having to endure 90 minutes of torture worthy of the very cruellest techniques ever employed at Guantanamo Bay.

Chelsea will be coming off a cruel defeat of their own after an epic 2-1 defeat to Inter Milan which included another bitter pill to swallow as Manuel Mejuto Gonzelez complied with tradition in not granting Chelsea a penalty on a big European night. The lack of performance by certain players at the San Siro may be a cause for concern for Ancelotti going into a pivotal stage of the season.

Man City will be without their main man Emmanuel Adebayor who received an instant red card during City’s 3-1 FA Cup exit to Stoke City. To be fair to the Togo hitman ,there is no way that the crime warrants the punishment. City will be buoyed by the return of Carlos Tevez from Argentina following personal problems. Patrick Viera is also suspended ( though this one is warranted ) for his low blow to Glenn Whelan.

The bad news for Chelsea just kept on rolling in Milan as Petr Cech tore a calf muscle and will miss a months worth of action. Alex , Juliano Belletti and Joe Cole were all on the bench against Inter and all three are expected to feature against City.

Expected Line-Up

Hilario

Ivanovic , Carvalho , Terry , Belletti

Ballack , Mikel , Lampard

Anelka , Joe Cole

Drogba

Main Man

The drop in Chelsea’s performances has , not surprisingly , coincided with the drop in form of Nicolas Anelka. The unsung hero of Chelsea’s season so far , a plodding performance against Inter again gives leverage to the argument that his strengths are not accentuated in the Christmas tree formation. You must believe that Nic needs to find his form from somewhere if Chelsea are to have a trophy laden end to the season.

Danger Man

Adam Johnson has made an impressive start to his Man City career since joining from Middlesbrough for 8 million pounds. The pacy , skilful young English winger will cause problems for the ever reliable Ivanovic at right back. The Serbian will need to be on his toes.

Prediction

The speed and mobility in City’s midfield will pose problems to Chelsea’s vastly less mobile midfield. However City’s defensive problems coupled with the lack of Adebayor and the fact that Chelsea players will surely be dying to put right what went wrong in Milan leads me to go for the following scoreline , a tough , tight , tense….