STAR PREVIEW: Chelsea v Leicester City

Frank Lampard may be winless in his first two games as Chelsea manager, but his side have shown plenty of promise in the first week of the season and they deserve more luck to come their way against Leicester.

A trip to Old Trafford always had the potential to be a nightmare start to the season, but even a 4-0 defeat did not look on the cards before the game, or during the first 18 minutes that Chelsea actually had the better of. However, a clumsy challenge from Kurt Zouma brought Marcus Rashford down and from then on they were always vulnerable against a United side that is built to play on the break.

Despite this, they more than held their own until the 65th minute, when Andreas Pereira’s excellent cross found Anthony Martial before Paul Pogba brilliantly put Rashford in for his second, and the game was lost within two minutes. The scoreline was unflattering but it’s worth looking at the game through a different lens. Chelsea had 18 shots to United’s 11, won the shots on target count 7-5, won the corner count 5-3 and also were much closer on the expected goals count than the final score.

Chelsea had Tammy Abraham and Emerson hit the post whilst also forcing David de Gea into seven saves in what was actually a very promising display. They were encouraging again when they drew with Liverpool in the Super Cup, taking them to penalties. N’Golo Kante was dominant in the first half whilst Christian Pulisic was also impressive, and it appears that Lampard has plenty to work with.

Chelsea v Leicester City
Premier League
16:30 Sky Sports Premier League / Sky Sports Main Event / Sky Sports Ultra HD

HEAD TO HEAD RECORD
(Maximum 10 matches)
MAY 2019 PREMIER LEAGUE Leicester 0-0 Chelsea
DEC 2018 PREMIER LEAGUE Chelsea 0-1 Leicester
MAR 2018 PREMIER LEAGUE Leicester 1-2 Chelsea
JAN 2018 PREMIER LEAGUE Chelsea 0-0 Leicester
SEP 2017 PREMIER LEAGUE Leicester 1-2 Chelsea
JAN 2017 PREMIER LEAGUE Leicester 0-3 Chelsea
OCT 2016 PREMIER LEAGUE Chelsea 3-0 Leicester
SEP 2016 EFL CUP Leicester 2-4 Chelsea
MAY 2016 PREMIER LEAGUE Chelsea 1-1 Leicester
DEC 2015 PREMIER LEAGUE Leicester 2-1 Chelsea

Leicester’s opener against Wolves didn’t really live up to its potential – there were just three shots on target in the whole game – but the savvy tactics of Nuno may have cancelled them out in a game when two largely counter-attacking sides stopped each other from getting any space.

Today ought to be a rather different affair with Chelsea fond of going forward at home and that should mean more space for Jamie Vardy, James Maddison, and Ayoze Perez on the break whilst Youri Tielemans will have an opportunity to stretch his legs too.

This could be a game with plenty of goals. Chelsea with any luck could have scored at least twice against United last week and are committed to attacking under Lampard, whilst Leicester will thrive if this game is more open than last week’s contest. After Brendan Rodgers’ arrival at the end of last season, Leicester saw six of their last 10 Premier League games go over 2.5 goals and it might still be worth nothing that they kept a clean sheet in only 21% of their away games last season. 17/20 is a fair price on over 2.5 goals.

RECOMMENDED BETS (scale of 1-100 points)
BACK OVER 2.5 GOALS 5 points at 17/20 with starsports.bet

---

PROFIT/LOSS SINCE JAN 1 2017: PROFIT 250.07 points
(excluding Ryan Sidebottom Ashes bet (c/f double and Ashes preview outright and Second Test), Political Bets posted 8 August, Premier League ante-post, BMW Championship)