English Premier
2011-10-02 - Bolton Wanderers vs Chelsea
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football : English Premier League
Sunday 2 October 2011 - Kickoff 1:30pm
This game is live on TV
Bolton Wanderers
All the fears around the Reebok Stadium at the beginning of the season are taking shape as Bolton Wanderers have made a struggling start to the season.
In fairness to Owen Coyle, who I do respect as a manager, Bolton have been given no favours by the fixture compilers that have handed them games with Manchester City, Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal to start the season and now they have Chelsea coming to town.
Bolton are bottom of the table with 3 points to their name that were picked up in a 0-4 win at QPR on the opening day of the season. They have really struggled at the Reebok Stadium in the early goings, losing all 3 League games played there, scoring 3 goals but conceding 10. Bolton have conceded the most goals in the Premier League this season.
The Trotters have lost 4 League games in a row, although they have won a couple of Carling Cup games around these defeats. It is quite a sequence of bad results Bolton have been running in the League, losing 10 of their last 11 League games following on from the end of last season. The team have lost 5 games in a row at the Reebok Stadium in the League.
Gary Cahill missed the game last week at Arsenal due to an illness, but he should line up on Sunday. David Wheater is suspended, as is Ivan Klasnic, while Gael Kakuta can not take part as Chelsea are his parent club.
Chelsea
Chelsea put in another quality performance at Valencia in the Champions League on Wednesday and are now in a strong position to qualify from the group stages. They were unfortunate not to pick up more than a point from Valencia, but the performances have got to be pleasing Andre Villa-Boas and the supporters.
The Blues have quietly made their way up to 3rd in the Premier League table, picking up 13 points from their 18 available and they are only 3 points behind the two Manchester clubs. Chelsea are 1-1-1 away from home this season, scoring 3 goals and conceding 4, but they have played at tough venues like the Brittania Stadium and Old Trafford.
Chelsea have been playing well of late, even if they have not won any of their last 2 away games at Manchester United and Valencia. I was impressed with their performance in both of those games, and it would not have been that unfair if they had won 1 and drawn 1 of those games rather than losing 1 and drawing the other. The only criticism I could perhaps have of the team in their away games so far this season is tht they are not as clinical in front of goal as they could be.
Fernando Torres is suspended following his sending off against Swansea last week, and Didier Drogba could come back into the side at his expense. Daniel Sturridge is unlikely to be passed fit to play the side where enjoyed so many good performances while on loan at the back end of last season.
Head to Head
Chelsea are unbeaten in 15 League games against Bolton since losing 1-2 at Stamford Bridge in the 2003/04 season.
The Blues have won 6 games in a row against Bolton in the Premier League overall, but their record at the Reebok Stadium is even more impressive.
Chelsea have won 8 games in a row when visiting Bolton, and they have kept clean sheets in every win.
Bolton were beaten 0-4 in each of the last 2 seasons in this fixture.
Prediction
I really like the way Chelsea have been playing in their last few games, with Andre Villa-Boas playing an open attacking formation that is not quite producing the results they deserve, but you can see things are not far from truly clicking at Stamford Bridge.
The win to nil has been priced up at a tempting 2.88 in places, but I am going to avoid that as Chelsea have only kept 1 clean sheet in their last 7 games in the Premier League and Champions League and you can see they are just working out exactly how they should be defending as a team.
Chelsea have been creating lots of chances and I think they have only been prevented from scoring more goals due to a little anxiety in front of goal coupled with some outstanding goalkeeping performances.
With Bolton's defensive problems, I would expect Chelsea to create chances again this week and I think they will be good enough to score a couple of goals at least.
Bolton themselves have been struggling to really hurt teams at the moment, and so I am going to back Chelsea to clear the Asian Handicap in this first live game on Sunday afternoon.
The Statistics :
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The Pick :
Bolton Wanderers 0-2 Chelsea
FIXED ODDS BETTING TIP :
I'll back Chelsea -1 Asian Handicap @ 1.90
