MY ACCOUNT
– Chelsea have scored just two goals in their last six matches
– West Ham have started picking up results thanks to their defensive improvement
– Recommended bet: Both teams to not score
After a heavy summer spend, Chelsea again went big in the January transfer market in the hope of sparking a top-four challenge — but a run of one win in six league outings does not bode well for their Champions League ambitions.
Graham Potter has been handed a tricky building task as Chelsea manager, with a raft of injuries in autumn and winter hindering efforts to nail down a settled XI and another five new arrivals in January now in need of bedding in.
Given the scale of change at Chelsea over the past 12 months — not just in terms of the squad but also in the boardroom and dugout — it is no wonder that the Blues have struggled to look the sum of their parts.
However, the tricky side-effects of splashing half a billion pounds on your squad is not the sort of problem that to illicit sympathy from rivals, and a struggling West Ham side will be looking to take advantage of the teething problems in Potter’s pricey project.
Team news
West Ham centre-back Thilo Kehrer had to come off at half-time against Newcastle last weekend with a tight hamstring so is a significant injury doubt and fellow centre-back Kurt Zouma will be out until the end of the month with a similar problem.
Goalkeeper Alphonse Areola also remains unavailable with a hamstring strain and attackers Maxwel Cornet and Gianluca Scamacca are set to miss out with calf and knee injuries respectively.
Chelsea’s new signings Enzo Fernandez, Noni Madueke and David Fofana each made their Premier League debuts for the club against Fulham last week and will again be available, as will fellow January arrival Joao Felix, who returns from suspension.
Full-backs Reece James and Ben Chilwell both returned from injury against Fulham and will be building up their game time but goalkeeper Edouard Mendy remains absent with a broken finger and centre-back Wesley Fofana is likely to miss out.
N’Golo Kante and Denis Zakaria remain unavailable through injury and fellow midfielder Mateo Kovacic is a significant doubt with a calf complaint.
Winger Christian Pulisic is out until March with a knee problem and striker Armando Broja is out for the rest of the season with an ACL rupture.
The stats
Potter’s Chelsea side have won only two of their last 11 matches in all competitions and are winless in six Premier League away games, losing at Fulham, Newcastle and Brighton in that run and drawing at Liverpool, Nottingham Forest and Brentford.
And east London has not been a happy hunting ground in recent years for Chelsea, who have won only two of their last eight away trips to West Ham, losing five — including last season’s 3-2 defeat at the London Stadium.
West Ham cannot claim to have made their stadium a fortress having lost three of their last five home games and crashed out of the Carabao Cup on penalties to Blackburn in that time.
However, prior to that run the Hammers had won six consecutive home matches and their most recent outing at the London Stadium ended in a 2-0 victory over Everton.
That defeat of the Toffees was West Ham’s only home game thus far in 2023, with each of their other five matches this year coming on the road.
And given West Ham have lost only once in 2023 — 1-0 away at Wolves — while winning three and drawing last weekend at high-flying Newcastle, there are solid grounds for suggesting David Moyes’ men are slowly finding their feet.
Prediction
Neither team is in impressive enough form to demand backing them but Chelsea’s recent results, particularly away from home, are enough to put you off trusting them at short prices.
Both teams are struggling for fluency, with West Ham short of confidence and Potter justifiably citing the lack of cohesion between his newly introduced players after last Friday’s 0-0 draw against Fulham.
Given the constant changes in Potter’s available XI, it is understandable that his frontline looks disjointed and that his focus has been on shoring up a makeshift defence.
Therefore, it is little surprise that eight of Chelsea’s last nine Premier League matches have ended with two goals or fewer, so under 2.5 goals makes a sensible Bet Builder addition.
West Ham have also been struggling for goals, notching just 18 in 21 league games this term, and with both managers looking to rebuild confidence by keeping things tight expect a low-scoring encounter.
Back ‘no’ in ‘both teams to score?’ — available at 10/11 with LiveScore Bet.
