Chelsea chase first home victory
Chelsea welcome newcomers Sheffield United to Stamford Bridge on matchday 4 of the Premier League. Both teams have kicked off the new season with a win, a draw and a defeat but it is time they part ways. The question is, which way will which team go?
Chelsea
Chelsea won their first game of the season last weekend but were forced to work hard for it against a plucky Norwich side with Finnish ace Teemu Pukki absolutely terrorizing the Chelsea defence.
A few things are very clear after having seen Chelsea play 3 games. The first is that they are defensively frail. Christensen and Zouma are anything but secure which has been on display throughout every game and is backed up by the fact that they have conceded 7 goals in 3 games.
The second is that they are very capable going forward, new kids on the block Pulisic, Mount and Abraham have been really impressive and Frank the tank Lampard seems to know what he wants and how to implement it. 4 goals in 3 games does not do them justice, i fully expect them to drastically improve on that.
The third and last is that despite their transfer ban Chelsea do have decent depth in their squad, during their away game at Norwich the blues had Giroud, Willian, Batshuayi and Alonso to call upon whilst Kante, Loftus-Cheek and Hudson Odoi are on the brink of return so it's really not as bad as people have been making it out to be.
These are the type of games that they simply must win if they want to play continental football next season and they know it, they have much to prove and will be yearning to do so.
Sheffield
Chris Wilder's newcomers have had a decent start to life in the Prem with a strong draw away at Bournemouth, a solid win at home against a shambolic Palace side and a pretty close defeat at home to Leicester.
The common denominator is that they performed admirably in all 3 games, Bournemouth and Leicester are by no means 'easy' games and Leicester had to rely on a dream-goal by Harvey Barnes to seal the deal.
I touched upon the fact that i believe Sheffield will sooner or later succumb to the demanding life the Prem requires in a previous bet and despite their strong performances thus far, i am sticking by it. we are only 3 games in but Wilder's men have been punching above their weight and are probably buoyed by the excitement of just playing games in the limelight.
They have a string of rough fixtures coming up and this is where i think we will start to see the cracks, Chelsea at the bridge is one of the seasons toughest games and i have a hard time seeing Sheffield travelling back home with anything but glum faces.
Betting tip
Chelsea have been lethal going forward but slack at the back which is why i will be backing a Chelsea win and over 2.5 goals at 19/20 with Bethard.
