West Bromwich Albion vs Chelsea Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

Preview

Joel Amorim Aug 21, 2015 @ 01:28 am

Next Sunday, 23rd of August 2015, the current champions Chelsea will travel to the West Midlands to measure forces with West Brom at The Hawthorns for Round 3 of the English Premier League.

Things have definitely not been easy for José Mourinho and his team who are yet to find their first win at the EPL this season. After an unconvincing home draw against Swansea, Chelsea succumbed at the hands of Manchester City last weekend and left the Etihad Stadium with a heavy 3-0 defeat. The atmosphere at Stamford Bridge is reportedly not the best after Mourinho’s tantrum with the first team’s doctor Eva Carneiro and due to an alleged problem with the team’s captain John Terry, who was replaced by the Portuguese manager for the first time in 177 Premier League matches.

There are, however, some good news for Chelsea supporters and José Mourinho himself as the club announced this week the signing of two top quality footballers: Pedro Rodriguez and Baba Rahman. The former Barcelona’s winger have finally decided his future after a huge deal of speculation regarding his situation at the Catalan team and will surely be a major asset for Chelsea throughout the season. Baba Rahman, a skilled left back who played for FC Augsburg last season, will certainly turn out to be, in the near future, a fairly more reliable option than César Azpilicueta and it won’t be long before the Spanish player is relegated to the bench.

The upcoming match against West Brom will certainly not be an easy one for Chelsea, especially if we have in mind that the Blues were hammered 3-0 over there last season and that their last win at The Hawthorns was back in 2011.

As for West Brom, they have not been particularly impressive so far this season and have only granted one point from the two matches they have taken part in. After a heavy home defeat against Manchester City on day 1 of the competition, The Baggies snatched a goalless draw from their visit to Vicarage Road last weekend.

Tony Pulis still has plenty of work ahead of him but if his players manage to replicate last season’s brilliant win against Chelsea, that will certainly work as some sort of catalyst for the upcoming matches and probably for the rest of the season.

West Brom

Stats: W-3 L-1 D-1

Recent Form - DLWWW

Chelsea

Stats: W-1 L-3 D-1

Recent Form - LDLLW

Possible Line-ups

West Brom (4-4-2) – Myhill - Dawson - Olson - McAuley - Brunt - Yacob - Fletcher - Morrison - Gardner - Berahino - Lambert

Chelsea (4-2-3-1) - Begovic - Ivanovic - Cahill - Zouma - Azpilicueta - Matic - Fabregas - Willian - Pedro - Hazard - Diego Costa  

Injury List / Suspended Players

West Brom - Ben Foster (inj)

Chelsea -  Moses (inj)

Head-to-head matches:

League Positions