English FA CUP
2012-02-18 - Chelsea vs Birmingham City
A Sports Betting Pick by Addicted
Football : England : FA Cup
Saturday, February 18th, 2012, 12:30PM GMT
PREVIEW
The Blues of Birmingham City are in West London to play the Blues of Chelsea, looking to knock them out and give them the, er, blues. It won't be easy, because Chelsea have yet to even concede in this tournament. Will that change due to the recent results and pressures faced by Villas Boas and his side? After all, Birmingham have not conceded in the FA Cup either!
Birmingham have done very well recently, winning their last 4 away games and scoring 14 goals in the process. They got here by knocking out Premier League side Wolves 1-0 in a replay following a 0-0 draw and are now without defeat in 13 games.
Chelsea are in a tight spot because they have done quite badly in recent games. Everton beat them 2-0 while Manchester United were allowed to come back from a 3 goal deficit. Yes, this is a huge match, where they must right the ship, but Chelsea must be looking ahead to their Champions League tie against Napoli. This is not a helpful distraction at this time.
I make Chelsea the favourites for this game, but I am not interested in the prices being offered, which are way too short to make sense. I've hence been trying to guess what AVB will do regarding team selection, as he will surely rotate and give a chance to some players who will obviously not be starting in Napoli in midweek. Drogba is back and will certainly be key in the Champions League so maybe he gets swapped here for someone else?
One player sticks out for me, and that is Romelu Lukaku. This is a big Belgian who has a good record of scoring. If he gets given a start, I would strongly recommend looking at him in the anytime and first-scorer markets.
BETTING VERDICT
I was thinking about backing either team to not score but the prices aren't great. I guess I will stick with Lukaku to score, and if you are backing Chelsea to win, do yourselves a favour and take them giving up -1AH for higher returns.
The Pick :
Chelsea to win
