ISL 2018-19: Chennaiyin FC eye season's first win against Mumbai City FC

Defending champions Chennaiyin FC will look to notch up their first win of the season when they lock horns with Mumbai City FC in their Indian Super League match at Chennai's Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Saturday.

CFC have made the worst possible start to their title defence losing four of their five games. They lie ninth in the points table with the solitary point coming from a 0-0 draw against Delhi Dynamos.

Gregory will be hoping the team finds inspiration against Mumbai, which lies sixth in the standings.

On the other hand, Mumbai City FC's performance has been up and down. The side did well to bounce back against Delhi after being routed 5-0 by FC Goa. They currently have seven points from five games.

Gregory, on the other hand will be expecting an improved performance from the players and would not want to leave things too late. His priority would be for the squad to return to winning ways and there is no better place than home territory.

SQUAD: Defensive lapses by the reigning champions has seen them lose at home, much to the chagrin of fans and coach John Gregory will look to plug the holes in the misfiring backline.

The absence of defensive midfielder Dhanapal Ganesh, owing to injury, has hurt the team's plans and the move to try Inigo Calderon hasn't paid off.

For a side known to have a strong defensive unit, CFC has already conceded 10 goals this season and Gregory would certainly be looking to repair his side's defensive lapses.

Carlos Salom, who scored against ATK, has been preferred to an off-colour Jeje Lalpekhlua in recent games. Wingers Thoi Singh and Isaac Vanmalsawma are starting to show some efficiency which should augur well for the team.

For Mumbai, Arnold Issoko and Moudou Sougou shone for Mumbai in the game against Delhi finding the net but the team's Portuguese coach Jorge Costa would be expecting more from the them.

Goalkeeper Ravi Kumar also did well in the absence of Amrinder Singh with a few good saves to keep a clean sheet.

Costa will be aware that the visitors have a task at hand in Chennai though the reigning champions have not been in the best form.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Chennaiyin FC and Mumbai City FC have faced each other eight times during which the reigning champions came on top on five occasions while Mumbai could manage just two wins.

FORM: Chennai have scored five goals from 22 shots on target while having 72.17 per cent passing accuracy. They also have one clean sheet. Mumbai have also scored the same number of goals from 19 shots on tatrget while having 67.17 per cent passing accuracy. They have also registered two clean-sheets.

PROBABLE 11s:

CHENNAIYIN FC: Karanjit Singh (GK), Inigo Calderon (C), Eli Sabia, Jerry Lalrinzuala, Francisco Fernandes, Anirudh Thapa, Raphael Augusto, Thoi Singh, Gregory Nelson, Isaac Vanmalsawma, Jeje Lalpekhlua

MUMBAI CITY FC: Amrinder Singh (GK), Joyner Lourenco, Lucian Goian, Subhasish Bose, Sauvik Chakrabarti, Arnold Issoko, Sehnaj Singh, Milan Singh, Paulo Machado, Modou Sougou, Rafael Bastos