Tag Archives: Chelsea

Graham Hunter: Chelsea will win the title. Here’s why…

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Colours nailed firmly to the mast (blue, as it happens, on this occasion) I firmly fancy Chelsea to win the title this season.

I suspect Jose Mourinho strongly expects that to happen too. In fact, if he spoke totally frankly I guess he’d say: “If there are no disasters and if everyone does what I tell them to then we’ll win by a length.”

What he actually did say last weekend was:

“This season I don’t want to worry about who’s our biggest rivals. “I thought a lot about that and the key is that my club gave me exactly what I asked for [in the market].”

However, somewhere in the calculating, shrewd left hemisphere of his brain will be the acceptance that Roman Abramovich’s track record leaves no room for doubt: win the title and/or the Champions League or it’s the sack.

First-rate recruits for a title assault

Whatever Chelsea win, the internet already has a joke for it.

You don’t have to look hard to find the wits who have designed a Chelsea shirt with the Atlético Madrid crest on it.

Diego Costa, Filipe Luis and Thibaut Courtois repatriated. While these are first-rate recruits for an assault on both the Champions League and deposing Manchester City they could, look, to some, like the perfect ‘bait’ for Diego Simeone.

Might the Blues’ Russian owner be attracted by this feisty Argentinian title winner who resembles nothing more than a young, hungry Mourinho circa 2004?

The same prodigy whose team outplayed Chelsea at the Bridge last spring, preventing them reaching Abramovich’s hallowed ground of the Champions League final? And if Simeone is the ‘Plan B’ marked Навсякийслучай ['just in case' in Russian] then what better way to scheme for the future than stripping the backbone of his Spanish champions and installing them at Stamford Bridge?

Such are the risks of the high-octane world in which elite football managers like Mourinho exist. Kill or be killed.

Jose Mourinho wink

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Jose’s Inter mission

However, this time I think it’s reasonable to back Mourinho and suspect that he’s replicated his very best transfer market splurge – at Inter in summer 2009. The echoes are uncanny.

Beaten by Sampdoria in the Coppa Italia and Manchester United in the Champions league [in the semi final and the round of sixteen, the same stages Chelsea reached in the two competitions last season] Mourinho did two things.

The night of the United defeat he buttonholed his club owner, Massimo Moratti and demanded: “I want this, this and this player to come and want to let this, this and this veteran player to go…” Ring any bells from this summer?

Then, after the Coppa Italia humiliation, he told the media: “You are always badgering me to use certain players more [Mancini, Vieira, Crespo, Maxwell, Adriano].. this is what you get.”

For months Mourinho warned that the squad he’d inherited wasn’t sufficiently good. The following season’s treble, powered by his own signings, proved his case.

Forward-thinking fella

All last season he warned that Chelsea’s strikers weren’t converting a sufficient percentage of their chances. Finishing 30 goals behind both Liverpool and City proved him right.

Long before the end of season 2008/9, almost as soon as defeat to United was wrapped up, so were the purchases of Thiago Motta and Diego Milito from Genoa.

Mourinho believed the Argentinian striker would become the guy to turn defeats into draws and draws into wins.

Over the following months Milito scored the league-winning goal, the Coppa winning goal and both Champions League Final-winning goals.

Another Diego, Costa, has the potential to replicate all that and in my view it’s telling that Mourinho recently revealed he’s known for months [just like with Milito] that the 25-year-old striker was secured.

“All last season we wanted him and we decided to wait until now because we were very focussed on having Diego Costa.”

In summer 2009 Mourinho enquired about buying Daniel Van Buyten or Breno from Bayern and was shocked to be able to sign World Cup winner Lucio. He bit their hand off and it was a triumph.

Let’s talk about Cesc, baby

This time he admits he was very surprised that World Cup winning Cesc Fabregas would leave Barcelona, and now the Catalan will goals, assists and vast experience to Chelsea’s midfield.

“A fantastic midfielder who can modify how we play and addd a next dimension to our play” is Mourinho’s assessment.

Another part midfielder/part striker just like Wesley Sneijder became for Inter in Mourinho’s glorious summer of 2009 also plucked from Spain – Real Madrid in Sneijder’s case.

The Dutchman debuted in [without a training session] in a 4-0 win over Milan and scored crucial goals, including the one against Barcelona which put Inter in the Champions League final. Bet on Fabregas to produce the same impact.

In 2009 Mourinho had one season of learning under his belt, drove all the signings and sales … and Inter stormed to the treble by May 2010.

In 2014 all the signs are that he’s produced similar quality work.

And while the treble may be a big ask becoming champions of England should not be.

Opening Weekend MBS

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Graham Hunter: ‘Simeone is special enough to lead Atletico past Chelsea’

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Recently I was talking to a Chelsea player about the quarter final second leg against Paris St Germain.

The Blues won 2-0, in extremis, to overturn the 3-1 first leg deficit. Laurent Blanc, as is often the case in big games, didn’t know whether to stick or twist. His team turned out a ‘nothing’ performance – neither defending staunchly enough nor posing meaningful threat and putting Chelsea on the back foot.

I offered up the idea that I’d admired Jose Mourinho’s idea of not replacing Samuel Etoo (Oscar went instead) when both Schürrle and Demba Ba were already on and he was introducing Fernando Torres.

Etoo played a small part in the goal which Ba scored and Mourinho, not exactly a guy known for commitment to all-out attack ended up with four strikers in play – just at the moment when risk was needed in order to win the premium of yet another place in the Champions League semi final.

I was put right. I was informed that every single eventuality had been planned for. If Chelsea were 1-0 up at half time such and such was to happen and the players knew it. If they were losing ‘x’ would happen, if they were 3-0 up and coasting ‘y’ would happen. If they were down to ten men then ‘z’ tactics would be employed and everyone would be clear on specifically what would be required of them, individually, in that instance.

Setting that information and that victory aside for a moment what Mourinho and most of his players can draw on, aside from the best up-to-date scouting and analysis, is vast data banks of experience.

For the Portuguese and the bulk of his players the stress, adrenalin, intensity, mood and so on, which are particular to being in the dream situation of needing a win or score draw in 90 minutes at home to reach the final of the greatest-ever football competition, are nothing new.

That’s not the case for Atlético.

Still, I think it’s easy to make a case for Los Colchoneros to go through this tie.

Simeone, his squad, the club execs, the media and the fans are all completely in sync.

They think the same, expect the same things, work/sing/plan with absolute intensity, they show the same levels of naked desire, they all make sacrifices and they are completely unified in the idea that it’s the end, not the means to the end, which matter.

Win pretty, win ugly. But win.

Recognise that theme anyone in SW6? I still think that Atlético are SO reminiscent of Chelsea around 2004/5/6

Full of talent, smart, athletic, brilliantly coached and also brimful of desire.

They’ve got a horse-shoe in their boxing gloves

Just as it was when the young ‘One’ really was ‘special’ it’s great to observe and report on.

Not necessarily aesthetically lovely, not always.

But compelling because we are into basic, eternal human instincts about competing, surviving, winning and evolving.

So, for those reasons, it’s easy to fancy Atlético. An away goal would be an immense boon. Two would put them through. Guaranteed.

They are on an immense unbeaten streak and everyone ‘believes’. The manager is a messianic figure and his word is law.

So many of these things which Mourinho once achieved automatically and Simeone is now proving he has in spades are absolutely NOT the norm in football.

Teams look harmonious, players tell us, tell the media, the manager, tell each other that they are ‘up for it’ that they are ‘ready’ that they ‘understand’ the tactics and the gameplan – but surprsingly often none of it will actually be true.

Men like Mourinho, Ferguson, Ancelotti, Guardiola partly get paid such exorbitant salaries because not only can they come up with the right game plans they can enforce them and get the key players to unify and to believe in what’s required of them. Not just to do it like automatons but to understand and believe.

That genuinely is quite unusual.

More, Simeone has a team which defends all over the pitch. Not only do they press quite well they are rigorously disciplined positionally, they work not in little individual units but in twos and threes. They work for each other.

Atleti also use the ball with cleverness and efficacy. Koke, Arda, Gabi, Sosa, Diego and Filipe Luis all deliver the ball very, very well indeed. Moreover there have been nine different goal-assist givers in the last 13 Atlético matches.

All for one and one for all, no?

But, in my opinion, here’s the rub. Having set them up as a proper ‘team’ it’d be fatuous to suggest that they utterly depend on one man.

The Gift Of No Gabi

However the importance of Gabi’s absence through suspension cannot, I reckon, be overplayed.

He’s Simeone on the pitch. Same brain, same rigour, same win at any cost, same respect from those around him, same ability to produce match winning goals or assists not in mediocre games but big, big moments.

His assist record in the last few weeks has been fabulous, always producing something when Atlético are just, slightly, beginning to look as though mental and physical freshness is at a premium.

He has able deputies in Mario Suarez and Tiago – but Gabi is a horrible loss.

Perhaps this is where Atlético’s greatest test comes. Gabi may not be an experienced Champions League semi final warrior but he might as well be.

He’d have led the troops around him, calmed them down when needed, speeded them up when required – he’d have led by example.

Back to experience. Back to accumulated knowledge. I’m sure the fact that Mourinho admires and wants Diego Costa for next season made Chelsea fans watch the ‘new’ Spain striker closely.

If they don’t watch La Liga regularly perhaps they were underwhelmed. Costa makes and takes chances of his own but he is also, heavily, the product of superb service from Arda, Koke, Gabi, Villa and Filipe.

Close Down Providers and Conquer

Last week Chelsea snuffed out the providers and so the finisher had scraps to feed off.

Ahead of this game Costa said, authoritatively, that Chelsea ‘would be forced to come out and play a bit more because they were at home this time’.

Perhaps. Was that the voice of experience or supposition?

How well briefed are all Simeone’s players about what to expect?

What do do in certain situations. How to react. When to push the pedal to the floor, when to… well, Kenny Rogers covered it best in ‘The Gambler’. Hold ‘em, fold ‘em, walk away .. run.

Are Atlético going to be as well briefed and prepared as Chelsea?

For these reasons I suspect it’ll need Atleti’s best performance of the season in order to go through. They’ve been remarkable these last few years, regular trophy winners and the Europa league has taught them, above all, how to peak in midweek and regularly produce wins, any old how, at the weekend.

Hence their heady Champions League/Liga positions.

But I reckon they’ll be tested to their very limits by an experienced, savvy, hungry and unified Mourinho side.

I think there’s a little bit of value in looking at Atleti set plays. They spend an inordinate amount of time practicing them. They are Spain’s most regular scorers from the dead ball and without Gabi, Koke remains an absolutely wonderful delivery boy when he’s crossing or passing off his right foot.

Raúl Garcia, Godín, Miranda, Costa are all well above average in the air and I’d expect Mark Schwarzer to be properly tested in his timing at coming for crosses.

At a guess I’d have thought that there’s no more than three goals in the match, much more likely two and that for all I’ve bemoaned the absence of Gabi Chelsea may need to score twice in order to meet Real Madrid in Lisbon next month.

Comedy value? The novelty bet? Simeone’s number two, Germán ‘Mono’ Burgos once threatened to re-arrange Mourinho’s features during a particularly heated Clásico.

Burgos is, without too much exaggeration, a character who makes Mourinho appear like Ghandi. If you can get decent odds on Burgos being sent off. Take them. All day long.

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Graham Hunter on how Atletico Madrid are like Chelsea of old, but why Jose Mourinho can take advantage of small margins

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Atlético Madrid vs Chelsea, Champions League semi-final (Tuesday, April 22, 19.45)

The neatest way to summarize what Jose Mourinho and Co face in Madrid tonight is that Chelsea are about to endure the most unsettling prospect of facing ‘themselves’.

Atletico are Chelsea of April 2005. Thibaut Courtois is Petr Cech, Diego Costa is Didier Drogba and above all Diego Simeone is Mourinho at his very best.

Little wonder under-pressure Jose wants to repatriate Courtois next season and is well on his way to signing Diego Costa.

diego simeone, atletico madrid manager

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Similarities with Chelsea 2005

Back in 2005 the Blues were horribly difficult to defeat and reached this semi-final stage by defeating both Porto and FC Barcelona – just as Atleti have done this season. But the greater similarities are in attitude, system, work ethic, all-for-one-and-one-for-all spirit.

Simeone is a street-tough man who isn’t afraid to admit he relies on his understanding of the Zodiac and horoscopes as part of his man-management techniques

‘Sanitarians need a lot of affection, but if you’re born under Scorpio you respond better to a bit of tough love. My star sign is Taurus – we can be a bit difficult to deal with. We’ll give you our heart and soul but only if you treat us well. If you try to force us to do something against our will, watch out.’

Tease him if you dare

Just like Mourinho used to have the ultimate capacity to achieve, Simeone has brought all his players, reserves too, to the boil at the same time – and kept them simmering all season. It’s one hell of a trick.

Champions League semi finals, Chelsea v Atletico via Graphic News

Simeone’s promise to his president

You could compare him to both Pep Guardiola and Mourinho for his absolute intensity – every minute of every working day. And in his spare time. He’ll often go to the cinema, catch the first 15 minutes but then become utterly overtaken by some new thought on training, or a rival, or the last match and need to walk out so that he can make notes.

Friends and family have tired of asking him whether he enjoyed a television programme, a movie or a concert. Usually he’ll have taken in about five per cent of what they have – because his restless football mind won’t let him alone.

Three trophies ago he took over with Atletico sliding down the table and able to peer over their shoulder at the relegation zone. He told his new president:

‘I’m going to make it unpleasant to play us, teams are going to suffer’.

He did. And they have

To this day his motto is: ‘If your car isn’t quite top notch then you have to find a way to puncture the other guy’s tyres so that you can keep up with him.’

John Terry and Frank Lampard 14/5/2006 00179078

What Terry and Lampard think…

When I spoke to John Terry and Frank Lampard (above in 2006) at Cobham last week and asked them about this tie each man pointed out that the general impression of Chelsea having had an extremely favourable draw in avoiding Real Madrid and Bayern didn’t tally with their views of the Spanish league leaders.

Each of them watches Spanish football and while each is respectful of the team it’s also Diego Simeone’s electric buzz of energy, animation and activity on the touchline which has impressed them.

My words, not theirs, but I think they see a version of Mourinho – just younger and as hungry as the Portuguese was back then.

For those who are trying to size up this match it’s important to point out that often Atletico’s margins are the smallest. Lots of 1-0 and 2-1 wins. An indication of rigour, but also an indication that if Chelsea can ‘do a job’ on them then taking a draw or a one-goal win back to London isn’t utterly impossible.

Diego Costa

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More to Atleti than Costa

However, there’s a great deal to say that’s pro-Atletico. In all 23 Liga and Champions League games at the Calderon this season they’ve conceded just 10 times.

Notwithstanding the eye-catching nature of Courtois’ and Costa’s work this is a team – genuinely a terrific blend of youth, experience, pace, positional play, mental toughness. Will to win.

  • For example, although the headline figure is that Costa (above), potentially Spain’s starting World Cup No9, has 35 goals this season it’s important to note than in Atletico’s last 12 games (since their last defeat) there have been nine different scorers – Costa, Villa, Koke, Raúl Garcia, Gabi, Diego, Godín, Arda Turan and Miranda.
  • In those same games there have been nine individual goal-assist producers – Villa, Filipe Luis, Juanfran, Gabi, Raúl Garcia, Diego Arda, Adrian and Miranda.

Try picking a first goalscorer out of that lot. Atletico have Spain’s best set-play record offensively – they practice remorselessly and very often get it right.

That, allied to the fact that Atleti are noticeably good in the air in both attacking and defensive situations would suggest that conceding free kicks in the last third must be ‘verboten’ for Chelsea.

A little note for those who like in-play, should Atleti get a penalty and Costa is on the field he is likely to continue taking them – despite the fact that he’s missed four of eight this season.

Little details like that could well decide the whole tie and progress to Lisbon.

It’s old Chelsea against new Chelsea. May the better Chelsea win.

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King Pep is back — here’s what it means for Chelsea, Bayern, Barca, Mourinho, you and me

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Graham Hunter byline

Graham Hunter reveals the ripple effects caused by Pep Guardiola’s move to Bayern Munich

I don’t know of anyone who can prove Sir Isaac Newton was a Bayern Munich fan but I’m nearly sure the 18th century physicist had something like Pep Guardiola’s sudden decision to sign for the Bavarians in mind when he came up with this third law of motion; that for each and every action there will be an equal and opposite reaction.

Joy, bratwurst sandwiches, steins of strong lager and plans to dominate the Champions League forever in most of Bavaria.

Bitter tears, recriminations, thousand-yard stares and loud ‘why oh, oh, whys’ in Russian and Arabic haunting the Premier League.

That sort of thing.

So if Pep Guardiola (41) is the pebble which breaks the water’s surface and sends ripples spreading out in all directions — who all gets their feet wet?

Rafa Benitez

BOO, HISS: Abramovich has been left with Rafa Benitez at Chelsea, but not for long

#1. What happens now at Chelesa with Rafa Benitez and will Abramovich leave?

You have to wonder whether comrade Abramovich bent a few solid gold teaspoons in impotent rage yesterday, pushed away the side plate of beluga caviar and kicked the cat?

The Russian’s desire to import Barça-style football to Stamford Bridge is well established and having failed to persuade Guardiola last May the door was left firmly open for the Catalan to step in, and earn wealth beyond any normal man’s dreams, from this summer onwards.

Rafa Benitez’s interim appointment until the end of this season spoke volumes about the Chelsea owner’s confidence that by buying diminutive, technically gifted players like Oscar, Hazard, Mata and, I hear, Isco in the next transfer market he could sway Guardiola.

Txiki Begiristain, now in charge of Manchester City’s football direction but once Guardiola’s boss at Barça also said “no” to Abramovich. That’s not a good indication of how much these smart, successful football philosophers trust Chelsea’s strategy and consistency under Abramovich’s rule.

Nor did Benitez pick a particularly good night for his team to draw 2-2 with relegation strugglers Southampton. Booed off the pitch after a performance which means the European Champions have now won just one of their seven home Premier League matches under the Spaniard can only have served to implant another thorn in Abramovich’s side.

If either the Russian wants shot of Benitez by the end of the season or if the former Real Madrid youth team coach gets the call to return to the Bernabéu then what is the Chelsea owner left with?

Carlo Ancelotti’s title win wasn’t sufficient to appease him, Roberto Di Matteo’s remarkable Champions League odyssey had a five month feel-good factor and now Guardiola has chosen a walk near the Black Forest ahead of walking down the King’s Road. (With apologies to all fans of Horst Jankowski and the mod band Squire)

Where does Abramovich turn? Is it feasible that with the fans booing the club for its treatment of Frank Lampard, for the sacking of Di Matteo, for the run of sterile home performances and now with the rejection of Guardiola stinging worse than a paper-cut the Russian billionaire might, just, start to feel his comittment to the club ebbing away?

Sergio Busquets

CONTRACT TIME: Sergio Busquets could fancy a move north. And bring his pepper with him

#2. Who will be the first Barcelona player to move to Bayern?

Obviously, there were always going to be repercussions at Guardiola’s Alma Mater.

The first came for poor old Tito Vilanova on Wednesday night, after Barça’s 2-2 draw against 10-man Málaga, when his press conference was pretty much hijacked by Spanish, Catalan, Italian and German journalists. All wanted to ask him about his friend and former boss signing for the Bavarians more than about the surprise home draw in the Copa del Rey quarter final.

There wasn’t any doubting Vilanova’s sincerity when, in order, he stated that a) he hadn’t known anything about it despite having met Guardiola in New York last week b) he was utterly delighted that a force for good in football was returning to the top level of the European game and c) that Bayern appeared a smart choice for Pep given that it was one of the all-time great football clubs.

But it didn’t take long for him to look a little piqued that the tantalising cup quarter final was being relegated to second place … or that Guardiola’s every move at Bayern looms as being a subject for every fourth or fifth question of each damn press conference next season.

More seriously, of course, there is the question about whether any key men at the Camp Nou — technical staff or stellar playing talents — might migrate and fly north in the summer?

Victor Valdés is in the throes of contract re-negotiations as is Sergio Busquets. The Barça Academy is full of glowing young tyro-talents — prime for plucking by Pep.

Normally Barça treat all that as an occupational hazard of forming exceptional young players and haggle for big fees which are then pumped back into youth development.

But it was only 48 hours ago that FCB President Sandro Rosell alleged Manchester City had been attempting to wave petrodollars in the direction of some Barça talent. Whether his attempt to boom out a ‘hands-off’ message was convincing remains to be seen.

If I were either the agent of Valdés, Busquets or anyone in line for an imminent contract renewal I’d be dancing a feverish jig of joy right now to the tune of ‘We’re in the money, we’re in the money…”

Jose Mourinho

SPECIAL ONE: Difficult times for Jose Mourinho at Real and Bayern are a huge foe

#3. Will Jose move to Germany just to get piss Pep off?

Now the Special One has always had a devilish sense of humour and, equally, he’s always boasted about being the only man capable of picking off major trophies in Portugal, England, Italy and Spain. So perhaps next season he’ll head-hunt Bochum or SpVgg Greuther Fürth, demand the manager’s job and storm into the Bundesliga title fight just to get under Pep’s skin again. Don’t pretend you weren’t already thinking about him doing something like that.

As for the ripples in the pond reaching President Pérez’s toes, it might not be a bad thing. Bayern are already Madrid’s most redoutable European foe.

And not just because of Los Blancos’ elimination at the hands of FCB in the Champions League semi final last April. Of Madrid’s twenty Champions’ Cup meetings with Bayern they’ve only won seven and the goals scored are 33-26 in the Bavarian’s favour.

So for them to add the arch anti-Madridista in Guardiola, with the guarantee that Bayern’s attention to detail and ruthlessness when it comes to winning trophies will increase, it must seem a trifle ominous to the President of the Spanish champions.

Moreover Bayern, like Barça, have a guiding football and business philosophy which is starkly different to Madrid’s and the Bundesliga leaders also put enormous faith in their own youth development policies. Time for Florentino to look and learn?

And finally…

Javi Martinez

THINGS CAN ONLY GET BETTER: Pep can get the best out of Javi Martinez

#4. The situation for the Bayern squad, Javi Martinez and Spain

It’s simple to explain why Bayern is a natural fit for Guardiola. Ambitious, well-run, attentive to detail, a club with a Bavarian identity rather than German just as Barça feels itself firstly as a Catalan institution rather than a Spanish outfit. It’s also pretty clear what Guardiola brings to the party.

Basically this is all, ‘winning machine gets Formula One petrol in its engine — GO! GO! GO!’ as Murray Walker used to screech.

But there will be some stalled engines. Guardiola is maniacal about detail, quite right too. His demands are high and they are incessant. Without question he will encounter one or two at Bayern who either think, or worse still say: “Es tut mir leid, aber das ist nicht, wie wir die Dinge hier tun.”

Which, roughly, means: “That’s all very well pal but that’s not the way we do things around here you know.”

A deadline missed, a little bit of larking around during training, a stretching exercise only 95% completed, a late night ahead of a match… too many appearances in sponsors’ adverts.

If anyone at Bayern Munich’s Säbener Straße training centre doubts what kind of tightening of the leash is coming they need only phone Samuel Eto’o, Zlatan Ibrahimovic or Yaya Touré.

As for Javi Martínez, I suspect good times lie ahead. His €40m price tag has occasionally chafed this season. Hands up anyone who is totally shocked?

Okay, please leave the classroom.

But he now fulfills the right side of the two-man midfield, with Bastian Schweinsteiger, in retiring manager Jupp Heynckes’ regular 4-2-3-1 formation.

However, there could be no better ex-midfielder to become maestro to the talented, athletic Basque who can look closely at Xabi Alonso and Sergio Busquets now and believe: “I’m capable of making them fight much harder for their places in the world champions’ starting XI.”

I’m certain their shared language, ability, outlook and professionalism will unite Guardiola and Martínez, to the great benefit of the latter.

Then, dear reader, there is you and I…

Pep Guardiola

RETURN OF THE KING: Whatever way you look at it, Pep Guardiola’s comeback is good for football

Neutral or partisan, German, Spanish, Catalan, Bavarian, Scottish, English, Irish or Welsh we should all be thrilled to the core that the beautiful game has one of his most attractive participants back again.

Viel Glück Herr Guardiola.

  • Graham Hunter on La Liga for the Paddy Power Blog
  • Betting: Bundesliga
  • Betting: La Liga

Graham Hunter is a Barcelona-based, British soccer writer whose passionate insight on La Liga can regularly be seen and heard on TV and radio. He also writes for the Paddy Power Blog on Spanish football. Follow Graham on twitter here.


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Chelsea v Newcastle Premier League Betting Preview

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Frank LampardChelsea face their second consecutive away match in the Premier League this afternoon as they travel to St. James’ Park to take on a Newcastle side who are keen to turn around a recent run of bad form and will want to continue winning ways after their 2-1 victory over Aston Villa mid week.

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Chelsea v Arsenal – Premier League Betting Preview

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Wojciech SzczesnyAfter suffering embarrassing results in their last two home games in the Premier League Chelsea should be fighting for a win here against Arsenal to regain their pride, and they are our favourite to do so at EVS. Chelsea recently lost 1-0 to QPR at Stamford Bridge followed by a disappointing 2-2 draw to Southampton in their next home game, so the pressure will be on them to perform here.

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Chelsea v Southampton – Premier League Betting Preview

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John TerryThe re-scheduled Premier League game between Chelsea and Southampton kicks off this evening and both teams should be entering the match with confidence. Southampton took a controversial 1-0 win over Aston Villa in their latest Premier League match which took them to the 15th spot in the table, and they should be keen to cause upset again here. However Chelsea are also in good form, despite their recent shock loss to QPR, and they are our favourite to win here at 1/4.

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Premier League Betting Preview – Stoke v Chelsea

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Demba BaBoth of these teams go into today’s Premier League match hoping to rectify recent defeats by securing points. Stoke lost 3-0 away from home at Manchester City last weekend whilst Chelsea fell to a 1-0 shock defeat at home to QPR. They are the on-the-road team here though and the Britannia Stadium is a difficult place to go for any team.

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Chelsea v Swansea – Capital One Cup Betting Preview

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Juan MataChelsea should be looking to recover from the embarrassment of losing 1-0 to QPR in their latest Premier League game by avoiding a similar fate here, and should be keen to defeat Swansea in this Capital One Cup clash. Chelsea are our hot 2/5 favourite with Swansea at 13/2, but with a couple of shock results already in the tournament The Swans should not be written off.

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