Next Saturday, 22nd of November 2014, the all-powerful Chelsea will entertain a somewhat inconsistent West Brom at Stamford Bridge for round 12 of the English Premier League, a match during which the Blues will certainly try to avenge the problems The Baggies caused them last season, when they “nicked” them four points on both sides’ two clashes.

The new José Mourinho’s Chelsea are having an almost flawless campaign at EPL so far this season. The Blues are at the top of the table with nine wins and two draws from eleven matches and they are already eight points ahead of Manchester City and four ahead of Southampton, their closest contenders by now. Together with the Saints, who are having a fantastic season under Ronald Koeman’s leadership, Chelsea is by far the most interesting team at English football this season. José Mourinho has, in a sense, refurbished his team’s mentality, which fell short of expectations last season, and also managed to increase the Blues’ overall quality standards by signing both Fàbregas and Diego Costa during the Summer.

Two weeks ago, Chelsea snatched an excellent 2-1 win at Anfield Road after conceding an early goal by Emre Can early in the match. The Blues made a strong comeback and reached the winning goal on the 67th minute, when Diego Costa placed the ball in the net after an excellent effort by Azpilicueta on the left.

For the upcoming clash against West Brom, the Portuguese boss will probably still not be able to count on the contribution from the talented Spanish playmaker Fàbregas and from Schurrle, both currently sidelined due to injury.

As for West Brom, the Baggies are not having an easy campaign so far. After an important win over Leicester earlier this month, West Brom sucumbed to Newcastle at home two weeks ago, thus conceding their fourth defeat of the season. The Baggies have only managed to win once during their last six matches, and a defeat against Bournemouth for the Capital One Cup has certainly caused some damage to the team. Albion’s manager, Alan Irvine, will need to dig deep to motivate their players after their recent poor results but a match against the all-powerful Chelsea could just be what they need to get back on track once again.

Regardless of what West Brom did at Stamford Bridge last season, Chelsea are firm favourites to win next Saturday’s clash, thus cementing their position at the top of the EPL table.

Chelsea

Stats: W-3 L-0 D-2

Recent Form - WDWWD

West Brom

Stats: W-1 L-2 D-2

Recent Form - LWLDD

Possible Line-ups

Chelsea (4-3-3) – Courtois - Ivanovic - Terry - Cahill - Azpilicueta - Matic - Mikel - Óscar - Hazard - Willian - Diego Costa

West Brom (4-4-2) - Foster - Winston - Dawson - Lescott - Gamboa - Gardner - Morrisson - Dorrans - Mulumbu - Samaras - Beharino

Prediction

Chelsea 2 West Brom 0