The fearful opponent visits Stamford Bridge! Next Tuesday evening, the 17th matchday of the English Premier League starts for Chelsea FC and AFC Bournemouth as well. After the long and exhausting Qatar World Cup, it continues in cold England without a break. Here, the Blues are brought back into the sad Premier League routine, as the Londoners have not been able to win there for 5 games already. The promoted team, on the other hand, had a strong first half of the season, finishing in 14th place with 16 points.
Chelsea FC vs. AFC Bournemouth: The starting position
- Form Chelsea: 2 draws and most recently 3 defeats in the last 5 PL games
- Form Bournemouth: 2 wins and 3 defeats from the last 5 matches
- Favourite role: According to the bookmakers, Chelsea are the clear favourites
If we take a look at the direct comparison, the Blues have 4.5 times the squad value, which clearly highlights the difference in quality. Nevertheless, the outsiders are considered to be the Blues’ little fearful opponents, who have only managed to win one point in their last 3 meetings. In addition, there were two clear victories for the Cherries with a 0:1 and a 4:0. Nevertheless, the bookmakers expect Graham Potter’s team to end their negative trend and win the match.
Chelsea FC – End negative streak with an opening win in the second half of the season
The current first half of the season has been like a turbulent rollercoaster ride for the Blues. Both in the league and in the top flight, the Londoners got off to a mixed start, while Thomas Tuchel was also dismissed in the meantime. His successor Graham Potter had a good start, but in the last 5 PL games the team went downhill. Only 2 points are considered too few, which is why the team fell from 4th to 8th place in the table.
Now it is important to quickly end the negative trend and start the hunt for the CL places. However, Tottenham is still far away with an 8-point lead, even though the Blues have played one match less so far. Now they have to collect 6 important points against the two promoted teams Bournemouth and Nottingham. To do so, they have to take control of the game and the lead early on in order to ultimately live up to their role as clear favourites.
AFC Bournemouth – Nothing to lose
Gary O’Neil’s side have also had a rollercoaster first half of the season, with the Cherries failing to impress under predecessor Scott Parker, prompting a change of manager at the beginning of September. Since then, Boscombe has enjoyed a strong run of form and has been in 8th place in the table. However, the upward trend was to change again.
Nevertheless, the Cherries were able to end the negative series of 4 defeats in a row in the last Premier League game with a 3:0 success against Everton. Now they have to build on this performance and put the Blues under pressure early on. An early opening goal could throw the Londoners off track, so that the O’Neil eleven can get the 3rd win in the 4th game against the Blues.
Betting tip & prediction: Chelsea FC – AFC Bournemouth (27/12/2022)
Our expert tip for Chelsea FC vs. AFC Bournemouth is a win for the Potter team. The Blues are considered to be clearly superior in terms of play, while the ex-Brighton coach has made his analyses. As a result, he will prepare his troops in the best possible way to live up to the role of favourites this time. In the course of this, we bet on Chelsea FC to win the match at NetBet with odds of 1/3.
Betting tip: “Blues break negative streak – Important win against the promoted team”.
The Londoners always struggled in the past encounters, while they failed to score at all in 2 of the past 3 games. Consequently, we expect a narrow victory for the Potter eleven and bet on under 2.5 goals with odds of 6/5. Furthermore, we assume that the promoted team will not score at Stamford Bridge. Consequently, we are betting on both goals with odds of 4/5 on no.