STAR PREVIEW: Chelsea v Lille

The wheels have been slightly wobbly on the Chelsea bandwagon lately but Frank Lampard’s men can still earn a spot in the last 16 of the Champions League with victory over Lille this evening.

The Blues have taken a steep learning curve through the campaign and are now a much better side than the one that lost 1-0 to Chelsea on the opening matchday here, having gone unbeaten since that defeat.

The worry for punters backing them at short price is their wobbles in the Premier League recently. Chelsea have lost three of their last four domestically, and whilst a 2-1 defeat to Manchester City is understandable, they were much less impressive in defeat against West Ham and also against Everton at the weekend.

Chelsea v Lille
UEFA Champions League Group Stage
20:00 BT Sport 2 / BT Sport Ultimate HD

HEAD TO HEAD RECORD*
(Maximum 10 matches, Since 2010)
OCT 2019 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Lille 1-2 Chelsea

Both those sides had been woefully out of form beforehand, but Blues fans will be reassured by the fact that Lille have struggled badly in the Champions League. They are at the bottom of Group H with just one point from their five matches, including a 2-1 loss to Chelsea in France, and it appears that the step up to European completion has been too much for Christophe Galtier’s side.

There is also the question of where Lille will place their resources. They are currently second in Ligue 1, where the top half of the table is packed behind runaway leaders PSG, and with nothing to play for in Europe they could easily focus on Friday’s game against Montpellier.

Regardless of what team the visitors put out, Chelsea should be encouraged by the fact that they’ve lost 3-0 at Ajax on matchday one and 4-1 at Valencia last month when outside of France and for all Chelsea have been slightly off colour of late, they have the ability to make little fuss of booking a place in the last 16.

RECOMMENDED BETS (scale of 1-100 points)
BACK Chelsea 2-1 Lille 1 pt at 8/1 with
BACK Chelsea 3-1 Lille 1 pt at 9/1 with

---

PROFIT/LOSS SINCE JAN 1 2017: PROFIT 213.45 points
(excluding Political Bets posted 8 August and 23 Nov, Premier League ante-post, Cameron Brown football bets)