Chelsea Takes on Injury Ridden Stoke in the Premier League
Published September 23, 2017 by Florin P
Stoke welcomes Chelsea at Bet365 Stadium hoping to maintain its invincibility at home (3:00 p.m UK Time).
Chelsea was unable to defeat Arsenal at Stamford Bridge and also lost a player to a red card in the final minutes of the game. They won’t have home pitch advantage over Stoke, but they’ve recently proved their ability of winning away from home. The hosts have a hard time climbing in the first half of the tables and are expected to find to avoid relegation this season.
No Injury Concerns for Chelsea
Drinkwater is the only player the full ahead of this fixture, but even his injury is mild and could well play against Stoke. With or without him, Chelsea has so many options up front that the former champions are expected to take the initiative. If they come out firing on all cylinders, the Blues are likely to score an early goal against a team that struggled to keep clean sheets.
Chelsea hasn’t lost against Stoke since 2015 and scored a bucketful of goals against them both at home and on the road. The starting formation will certainly featured Morata in the offensive next to Diego Costa, but there are several offensive midfielders capable of scoring. The strategy in this match is to swarm the home side and exercise constant pressure for 90 minutes.
A Balanced Head to Head Record
Stoke was unable to pick up many points on the road against Chelsea, but at home they won 16 games and lost just 15 while five matches ended undecided. Tonight however, they would be more than happy to salvage one point as they are clearly underdogs. With a backline struggling to prevent even lesser teams from scoring, Stoke will make defense their top priority.
bet365 Sports is the sponsor of the home team, but today it offers great odds on Chelsea to win on the road. 7/10 is really the kind of odds that would justify a bet on the Blues to win on the road, despite their busy schedule and balanced head to head record against Stoke.
