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Chelsea Aim To Defy Expectations

The Premier League is well and truly in full swing and this weekend, we’ll see another chapter of the 2018/19 season being written as Chelsea prepare to go head to head with Newcastle United. The two teams had turbulent summer periods to say the least and many of their respective fans were a little bit cautious heading into the campaign, but after two games, things haven’t gone quite as badly as they would’ve expected – well, more so for the Blues than the Magpies – sorry Newcastle fans.

It’s always interesting when a game of this magnitude comes along so early on in the season, and while a lot of people won’t understand what we mean by that, allow us to explain. Games like this can dictate the pace that a team plays at for the next few weeks and maybe even months because it represents two different schools of thought: for Newcastle, they’ll go into this as the underdogs looking to make a statement. For Chelsea, they’ll go into this being fully aware of the fact that they’re the favourite, and they need to be able to deal with that pressure.

If the result comes as we’d all expect then both sides will go on with their lives as you’d expect but if Rafa Benitez’s men can pull off the upset, then it could change the trajectory of the whole division. After all, this Chelsea side are still in the very early stages of their time with Maurizio Sarri, and consistency could well be the key for them when it comes to building a strong season both domestically and in Europe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh28MOAERCg

Alas, the home side will have some pressure on their shoulders too, as they can’t hide away from the poor start to the season that they’ve experienced from a points perspective. They were somewhat unlucky to come away with nothing in their 2-1 loss against Tottenham Hotspur, proving that they can bring it at home against the bigger teams in the league. Last week against Cardiff City, however, things were a little bit more worrying, as they were dragged into a brawl by the Welsh side and could only muster up a 0-0 draw.

Their opponents this weekend, on the other hand, having been making a few statements of their own – as unremarkable as they may have been. They kicked things off with a 3-0 ‘demolition’ of Huddersfield Town, and the reason why we may seem sarcastic about that is that it wasn’t all that convincing at all. Then, a week later, they let a two goal lead slip against rivals Arsenal before narrowly managing to edge them out in a 3-2 win. Sure, it was close and sure, they’ve been fortunate, but at least they’ve got six points on the board to brag about.

The same can’t be said of Newcastle, and you have to wonder whether or not this off the pitch situation with Mike Ashley is starting to impact things. Things can’t be rectified in the transfer market until January now, and that much is obvious, but the aim of the game here shouldn’t be to focus the attention on Ashley (as much as we’d like to see that). The priority needs to be keeping this team in the Premier League, and it’s a shame that we even have to say that, because they’ve easily got the potential necessary to be a consistent top half team in this division.

With Chelsea, on the other hand, it’s a bit of an unusual situation that they’re experiencing right now. They’re off to a bright start, they’ve got a great squad with some depth to it, and yet people are just waiting for them to fail. If they can continue to fly under the radar with their strong performances then they could set themselves up brilliantly by the time the Champions & Europa League games get underway, kind of in a similar manner to Liverpool last season. We aren’t suggesting that the Blues should necessarily prioritise the UEL, but they’ve got the players necessary to do so.

As we noted these two teams are incredibly familiar with one another having been competing for decades upon decades both up north and down in London, with Chelsea currently leading the overall head to head standings 71-53. Still, the latest game is probably what matters the most, and Newcastle fans won’t want the Blues to forget that they won this fixture 3-0 back in May, and a lot of the same players will likely be featuring tomorrow afternoon.

The gulf in quality between these two teams has always been pretty obvious, even throughout the summer, but Newcastle still have some game changers within their ranks that could pull something out of the hat. Salomon Rondon has shown a few bright sparks here and there so far during his time at St James’ Park, and he’ll be viewed as their main hope for goals in this one. Behind him will be Ritchie, Perez and Atsu, who are all more than capable of getting at defences if they have the confidence to do so on the day.

On the other side of the coin, however, you’ve got one of the strongest midfield setups in the league – and potentially even in Europe. Jorginho, Kante and Barkley will likely start this one but once Mateo Kovacic comes into the side on a consistent basis, the rest of the Premier League should be very concerned. Morata is still trying to prove that he belongs in this league despite all signs pointing towards a move away from England, as Willian and Pedro prepare to try and feed him the balls that could get him out of his rut.

Newcastle vs Chelsea Betting Prediction

These kinds of encounters are always complicated to try and predict, but when push comes to shove, it feels like Chelsea are just too strong for Newcastle to handle over the course of a 90 minute Premier League encounter. We think it’s going to be pretty close from the word go in a similar manner to the Newcastle/Spurs game a few weeks back, with Newcastle coming out and imposing themselves on Chelsea to let them know that they won’t be in for an easy afternoon.

As the game goes on, though, Chelsea will likely have much more joy in pushing Newcastle back and allowing their midfield trio to run free. They’re so tight with everything that they do and as the weeks go on that’ll only improve, with Kante, in particular, being the man who will likely pull all of the strings. We believe that Chelsea will slowly build up a 2-0 lead heading into the latter stages of the game, before Newcastle pull one back to set up a grandstand finish – with the visitors edging out the 2-1 win.