While Jose Mourinho was relaxed about the upcoming match against Manchester City, claiming that the points were important but that it wasn't too far removed, in the grand scheme of things, from a normal match, and wouldn't have a major impact on the title race, we got a different story from our opponents. City seem rather more stressed about the game than we do. Check out, for instance, what manager Manuel Pellegrini had to say about it:
PELLEGRINI ON FORM: We have been very unlucky in our last two games. We must win our next game at home so we are just two points behind.
— Manchester City FC (@MCFC) September 19, 2014
And then there's David Silva, whom the Sun (behind a paywall; sorry!) reports told his teammates that City could not afford to lose this weekend. The atmosphere around the defending champions seems to be one of fear -- lose and they'd go eight points behind Chelsea, a huge gap -- and although Mourinho's playing down the psychological aspects of the match, this doesn't just appear to be about three points.
Should Chelsea go to the Etihad and get a win, they'll have beaten a team that's already declared this to be their line in the sand. In other words: this is our chance to break them. Let's do it.