English Premier
2011-08-20 - Chelsea vs West Brom
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football : English Premier League
Saturday 20 August 2011 - Kickoff 5:30pm
This game is live on TV
Chelsea
Is there a better welcome to the Premier League than a trip to Stoke City? That was what faced Andre Villa-Boas in his first game in charge of Chelsea and there was no doubt the Portuguese manager was surprised with what the referees allowed to go unpunished when it came to set pieces thrown into the box.
A bigger concern for fans of the Blues may be the lack of a creative midfielder, one which surely could have made the difference as Chelsea dominated the 2nd half at Brittania Stadium last week. Luka Modric continues to be linked with the club, while a offer for Juan Mata was apparently turned down by Valencia. Either way, it seems clear that Villa-Boas wants to rectify the midfield issue before August 31st.
Chelsea expect to get much closer to Manchester United in the Premier League this season and they will want to maintain their strong form at home. Last season they finished with a 14-3-2 record at Stamford Bridge, scoring 39 goals and conceding 13. Only the Manchester clubs conceded less goals at home, while only United won more home games.
They won 6 Premier League games at Stamford Bridge in a row before drawing their final home game with Newcastle United.
Romelu Lukaku is in the squad following his transfer from Anderlecht, but I can't imagine he will be starting ahead of Fernando Torres, Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka just yet. David Luiz misses out this week, while Petr Cech is out for a month and will likely be replaced by Ross Turnbull.
West Brom
For 35 minutes last Sunday, West Brom must have felt worlds apart from Manchester United as they were being dominated in all facets of the game. However, Roy Hodgson's men managed to stay with the Champions and were perhaps a little unfortunate to end up losing the game after putting in a lot of effort in the 2nd half.
Hodgson has done a decent job in his 8 months in charge at the Hawthornes, and keeping the team in the Premier League is the aim this season. The Baggies 'boing boinged' into 11th position in the Premier League last season, and finished with a 4-5-10 away record, scoring 26 goals and conceding 41. Only Blackburn conceded more away goals than West Brom last season.
West Brom finished the season in decent nick, losing just 1 of their last 6 away games in the League. They also picked up results at Arsenal, Manchester United (only team to do so at Old Trafford) and Tottenham.
Peter Odemwingie is struggling with an injury and will need a late fitness test to determine his availability. Jerome Thomas is out, but Steven Reid and Gareth McAuley are available.
Head to Head
Chelsea extended their winning run over West Brom last season and have now won all 10 games they have played against one another in the Premier League.
The Blues have won all 5 games at Stamford Bridge without conceding a goal and they won this fixture 6-0 last season on the opening day of the 2010/11 season.
Prediction
Chelsea have dominated West Brom when the latter have visited Stamford Bridge, but there is a couple of concerns for them this time with the absence of Petr Cech. However, I still think they have so many attacking options that they will be able to grab the 3 points from the game.
Roy Hodgson has made West Brom much tougher to beat, but I think his system does not allow the team to use much of their own creativity, instead relying on them to be rigid in their formation and set their stall out. That worked very well in Hodgson's time as Fulham manager, although he does struggle to get his team to win away from home.
I feel the best way to get on this game is to back Chelsea to do what they do when West Brom visit Stamford Bridge, and that is to win with a clean sheet.
Defensively they played pretty well against Stoke last week, dealing with the majority of the balls put into the box, and I think they will be good enough to protect Ross Turnbull in goal.
Chelsea looked threatening enough last week to expect them to get a couple of goals in this game, and the win to nil market is how I will back them.
The Pick :
Chelsea 2-0 West Brom
