Chelsea vs Manchester City: Expect Kevin De Bruyne to show Blues what they're missing at Stamford Bridge

Impact: Kevin De Bruyne fired Manchester City into the Champions League semi-finals
Alex Livesey/Getty Images
Vaishali Bhardwaj15 April 2016

Kevin De Bruyne fired Manchester City into their first-ever Champions League semi-finals on Tuesday to not only go some way to justifying his hefty transfer fee but also demonstrate what a huge mistake Chelsea made by selling him two years ago.

The Blues let the Belgian leave Stamford Bridge for Wolfsburg in 2014 where he went on to be voted as the Bundesliga player of the year by journalists for his superb showings in Germany.

A club-record move of £55m to City followed for the forward and, just days before he returns to Chelsea to face his former side, De Bruyne showed just how far he has come by scoring the only goal in City's 1-0 Champions League quarter-final second-leg win over PSG.

With Chelsea now hosting City on Saturday, much focus will naturally turn to De Bruyne and his fine form this season - and the statistics do not make for good reading for Blues supporters.

Stats provided by fantasy football game Oulala show that the 24-year-old is outperforming Chelsea's midfield quartet of Eden Hazard, Oscar, Pedro and Willian in several areas apart from the number of goals scored this term.

@OulalaGames

De Bruyne, for example, has made more key passes (2.9) per game than all of the Blues stars mentioned while the Belgium international has also created 3.3 chances per game compared to Chelsea's standout player of the season Willian, who has 2.6 per match.

To add, De Bruyne has nine assists in the league to boast about - which is just four behind Hazard, Oscar, Willian and Pedro's assists combined.

Stats also show that De Bruyne has a better conversion rate and shot accuracy although he does have the same number of goals this term (six) than Pedro, who has enjoyed a revival in form in recent months.

While Chelsea's decision to sell De Bruyne in 2014 will continue to be questioned especially ahead of the reigning Premier League champions' clash with Manuel Pellegrini's men this weekend, the Blues players will have to concentrate their minds on trying to stop the forward if they want to avoid another top-flight loss on Saturday.

Graphic supplied by daily fantasy football game www.oulala.com

Follow Oulala on twitter @OulalaGames

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