Chelsea Hosts Leicester City in Sunday Premiership Play

Chelsea is going to be a work in progress in the early part of the English Premier League schedule. That’s evident to everyone now and clearly that’s evident to the Blues’ new manager Frank Lampard. After a 4-0 blowout loss to Manchester United to open the season, however, the team showed some clear progress in their next fixture. In that game, they lost to powerful Liverpool in a UEFA Super Cup match but forced the defending Champions League winner to penalties.

Leicester is in a similar situation as Chelsea though they get the benefit of working in a new manager at a much lower profile. Sure, they’re a one time Premiership Champion but they just don’t get the level of coverage and scrutiny as Chelsea. Since Leicester City won the 2016 EPL title they’ve had a revolving door of managers including Claudio Ranieri, Craig Shakespeare and Claude Puel. Brendan Rodgers is now the man in charge and is fortunate to have the backing of the fans in his corner. His goals might also be a bit more modest than Chelsea who would consider a lower than top 4 finish a poor season. Since the Premiership win, Leicester City has finished 12th, 9th, and 9th. Any sign of upward progress would likely placate the faithful at King Power Stadium.

Chelsea benefits from playing this fixture at Stamford Bridge but even before this year they struggled to find some measure of consistency late in Maurizio Sarri’s regime. They’ve got only 2 wins in their last 9 fixtures in all competitions with a 4 wins in 7 matches run at Stamford Bridge. Things have gone better for them in league play at home where they’ve won 6 of their last 8 English Premier League contests. In theory, Leicester City is a team that could catch an opponent ‘napping’ but it’s unlikely in the case of Chelsea–the visitor took 4 points from the Blues last season including 3 points in a 1-0 upset at Stamford Bridge. Generally, however, Leicester City is on a poor run in the Premiership with only 1 win in their last 6 matches and a listless 0-0 draw against Wolverhampton to open the season.

As we stated at the outset, however, Chelsea remains a ‘work in progress’ and this makes Leicester a ‘live dog’. Looking at the English Premier League odds board we’ll take them on the handicap and for both teams to score.

BET LEICESTER CITY +1/2, +1 -109 OVER CHELSEA
BET LEICESTER CITY/CHELSEA BOTH TEAMS TO SCORE -125

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