Fernando Torres, David Luiz, Michael Essien and Florent Malouda are all likely to start for Chelsea.
The quartet either came off the bench or were not involved in Wednesday night's Champions League last-16 second leg against FC Copenhagen.
Sunday's match comes to soon for Alex, who is on the brink of making his long-awaited comeback from a knee injury, while Yossi Benayoun (Achilles) will also have to wait until after the international break to return, having only resumed full training on Thursday.
Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini is threatening to leave Mario Balotelli out of his side.
Mancini appears to have lost patience with the controversial Italian striker in the wake of his Europa League red card against Dynamo Kiev on Thursday night and his starting place could go to Edin Dzeko.
Winger Adam Johnson made a quicker than expected return from an ankle injury to feature last night but is likely to remain on the bench as the Blues concentrate on trying to secure a Champions League spot.
Chelsea (from): Cech, Bosingwa, Ferreira, Terry, Luiz, Ivanovic, Zhirkov, Cole, Mikel, Essien, Lampard, Ramires, McEachran, Kalou, Malouda, Anelka, Torres, Drogba, Turnbull.
Man City (from): Hart, Taylor, Richards, Kompany, Lescott, Boateng, Boyata, Kolarov, Zabaleta, Wright-Phillips, Barry, De Jong, Vieira, Milner Y Toure, A Johnson, M Johnson, Silva, Dzeko, Tevez, Balotelli, Jo.
