Chelsea head into matchday 3 on the back of a Premier League loss to Liverpool at home. The 2-0 defeat was a major step back, especially after Chelsea have spent £200 million in the transfer market.
The Blues now have a chance to rebound from their loss with a visit to the Hawthorns on Saturday to play West Brom. The Baggies head into the fixture without a point. Slaven Bilic’s team have conceded the league’s most goals (eight) after 180 minutes of football.
West Brom lost to Leicester City 3-0 on opening day allowing all three goals in the second half. Their matchday 2 game didn’t end much better. West Brom were thrashed 5-2 by Everton at Goodison Park.
The Premier League clubs last met in the league in 2017-18. That season saw the Blues win both Premier League fixtures by a combined 7-0 scoreline. Chelsea scored 3.0 goals or more in both games.
Chelsea are on a four-match winning streak against West Brom. They have simply dominated the Baggies in that time winning to nil in each of those fixtures.
While Frank Lampard’s team were second best against Liverpool, they did claim a 6-0 win against Barnsley in the Carabao Cup in midweek. Summer transfer signing Kai Havertz scored a hat-trick. It was an impressive display after the £72m signing did very little against Brighton and Liverpool.
West Brom were also in action in midweek in the cup playing Brentford. Hal Robson-Kanu scored twice from the penalty spot. The game ended 2-2 with Brentford progressing on penalties 5-4.
Lampard will be short on centre-back options this weekend. Andreas Christensen was sent off against Liverpool for taking down Sadio Mane in the first half. He will miss the fixture with Fikayo Tomori possibly starting next to Kourt Zouma.
Antonio Rudiger is out of favour with Lampard and could be sold to bring in cash. Chelsea have a surplus of players in the squad thanks to their big spend this transfer window. One of those big signings, Hakim Ziyech is unavailable through injury. In addition, Christian Pulisic is out of action.
Bilic is without Keiran Gibbs after his sending off last weekend. Kenneth Zohore and Ahmed Hegazi are injured and won’t play. Robson-Kanu is a doubt after suffering an injury in midweek. Meanwhile, Kamil Grosicki could make the team in time for the game after shaking off an injury.
Can West Brom get a win against Chelsea? It isn’t likely. The Blues may have lost to a strong Liverpool team, but should put away one of the weakest teams in the division. Expect Chelsea to move to five-games unbeaten against West Brom with over 2.5 goals scored.
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