This weekends big Premier League clash sees London rivals Chelsea and Tottenham lock horns at Stamford Bridge on Sunday afternoon.
The Blues head into the game off the game of a disappointing 1-1 draw with Brighton & Hove Albion on Tuesday night. Adam Webster cancelled out Hakim Ziyech’s opener to consign Thomas Tuchel’s men to their eighth draw of the season.
Chelsea now sit 12 points adrift of leaders Manchester City – who also have a game in hand – while sixth-placed Arsenal can move level on points if they win their games in hand so Tuchel is under pressure to get things back on track.
Tottenham on the other hand will be high on confidence as they travel to West London having secured a thrilling 3-2 win over Leicester City on Wednesday night. Steven Bergwijn came off the bench to score twice in the dying minutes to seal a dramatic win for Antonio Conte’s side at the King Power.
Spurs are now sisth in the table and just one point adrift of West Ham with three games in hand so they can climb into the top four and close-in on Chelsea with victory at Stamford Bridge this weekend.
Betting odds
This is one of the most highly anticipated games of the weekend so there will be huge interest in the betting markets with punters placing bets on their mobile via betting apps, via websites like the ones listed here, on laptops or desktop computers or even visiting a traditional highstreet bookmakers.
Chelsea are currently the 8/13 favourites with the bookies while Tottenham can be backed at odds of 4/1. The draw is available at 29/10 and many neutrals could be tempted to back that outcome.
A 2-1 Chelsea victory is priced at 13/2 and Romelu Lukaku is the 3/1 favourite to be the first goalscorer. If you back the Belgian international to open the scoring in a 2-1 home win, you can get huge odds of 32/1.
Team news
Chelsea will continue to be without Reece James as he’s still recovering from a thigh injury while Trevoh Chalobah is also out with a hamstring problem that’s hampered him lately.
Edouard Mendy is still away at the African Cup of Nations so Kepa will continue in goal but Andreas Christensen [covid] and Ben Chilwell [knee] remain on the sidelines.
Tottenham won’t be able to call upon Hueng-min Son as he’s still nursing a muscle injury while defensive duo Eric Dier and Christian Romero are on the sidelines with thigh problems.
Prediction
Chelsea won the recent two-legged Carabao Cup semi-final between the two sides with relative ease having progressed 3-0 on aggregate so they should be confident of winning this game, especially as it will be played on home soil.
Spurs look rejuvenated under Antonio Conte and the Italian coach will be desperate to avenge the recent defeats against his former side. However, the Blues are expected to edge this game at Stamford Bridge.
