Manchester City versus Chelsea (week 6's big match)

Man City is desperate for Micah Richards to be fit enough to play Saturday versus Chelsea to avoid a nightmare scenario of putting Gareth Barry, James Milner, or Adam Johnson on the back line versus an explosive Chelsea squad. 

This lack of defensive presence weighed in heavily with Man City's surprise loss to West Brom in the Carling Cup third round. 

"We couldn't take any risks,'' he said. "If I had more players available it would be a different team. But when you play like us and Chelsea, on Saturday at 12.45, the time to recover is very short. They would need minimum three days so to play tonight would have been dangerous.''
It is to be hoped owner Sheikh Mansour understands the dilemma. After spending £1billion on City in just over two years, he was presumably hoping for an early end to the club's lengthy trophy drought. That now cannot happen until May at the earliest, although Mancini has no regrets.

"I don't regret making the changes,'' he said. "Saturday is more important, the FA Cup is more important. The Europa League is more important. I did not regard this as a necessary sacrifice. We wanted to win. That is why I had four senior players on the bench. But I knew there was a chance we could lose because we started with six young players. I am happy with these guys. We might have lost the game but they can improve. If they do not play tonight, when will they ever play?''

Thanks to ESPNsoccernet for some information