Chelsea vs. West Ham: Preview and betting tips

A clash of two teams who have not had a good Premier League season and a win will be worth gold to both coaches. The last duels between the two teams have been won by Chelsea (3 out of 4), but with one exception it has always ended with a one-goal difference. Will Soucek and co. continue to improve their performances and, more importantly, their results?

At the end of the transfer window, Chelsea were still quickly looking for reinforcements, which they did. However, in Saturday’s game against West Ham, neither is likely to present themselves to the Stamford Bridge crowd just yet.

Denis Zakaria and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang are certainly very welcome though, as Thomas Tuchel needed to strengthen the attacking ranks in particular. However, with N’Golo Kanté also missing for a few weeks, the guest appearance of the defensive midfielder is certainly a big help for Juventus.

Chelsea are certainly not doing as well as they imagined. If you compare it to the attacks of the other top teams, the Blues don’t exactly come out well. This is confirmed by the stats, when the Blues have 56.7% of the ball possession, only Manchester City (67.7%) and Liverpool (64.2%) have more of the ball on their hoofs this season, it’s just that they’re not so glorious with their shooting and especially its efficiency.

At the same time, it looked promising at the beginning, when Chelsea beat Everton and played a very good game against Tottenham, who could be said to be very happy for a point. The other games, however, did not go well at all, and the victory over Leicester may be regarded as fortunate just as it was in the case of Spurs, although the Blues played with ten men from the 28th minute.

So another setback is out of the question for Tuchel’s squad. But the same can be said of West Ham, who after 3 losses in a row beat a struggling Aston Villa and clinched a point with Tottenham. However, David Moyes’ charges could have got 3 points from the London derby, but burning chances is very close to them in this Premier League season.

Only in Wolves’ matches have fewer goals fallen (6) than in those of West Ham (8). And that there might not be many goals scored is suggested by the results of the last three meetings: 1::0, 3::2 and 0::1.

Despite all this, Chelsea are of course the favourites for Saturday’s game, in which they will again rely mainly on Sterling, who is in most of the Blues’ action. The team’s top-rated player has scored three times in the last 2 games and it is very realistic that if the home team scores, the English speedster will be involved again.

Source: Premier League, Whoscored