Soccer English Premier League - Fulham @ Chelsea
I don't like taking a team three times in a row, after losing the first two plays, but I expect Chelsea to have a strong bounce back in here on a great matchup for them. Chelsea lost at home against Basel mid week for the Champions League and I really don't understand why Jose Mourinho chose to start Willian instead of Mata or starting Eto'o again, who has been horrible. The good news is that this loss will probably lead to some chances in the lineup. I don't believe Eto'o will be a starter for the third time this week, while Ramires sat out in last Wednesday's game due to suspension and he should return to the lineup in here. Also Juan Mata is hoping for a recall after Willian's horrible game against Basel.
This game is getting a lot of buzz due to Chelsea's poor moment, but everybody is ignoring the fact that Fulham is in my opinion the worst team in the EPL right now. If it wasn't for a fluke win in Round 1 at Sunderland and they would be in the bottom three in the standings right now. Fulham's offense has been awful. Dimitar Berbatov has been erratic and his lack of speed is great for a slow footed defense such as Chelsea's, who struggled against Everton's speed on the front. Fulham is a team built to attack the wings, especially on the right side and that's also a good matchup for Chelsea, who has two good defensive minded corner backs in Ivanovic and Cole.
So, the key matchup in here will be on the center of the midfield where Chelsea with creative midfielders such as Oscar, Hazard and Mata will make Fulham struggle in protecting this area. A fresh Ramires will be a horrible matchup for the veteran Scott Parker as well. Fulham's defense hasn't been great neither. They allowed their opponents to shoot 21, 19 and 25 times on their first three games of the season, while even the lowly WBA was able to shoot 12 times against them last week. I expect Fulham's offense to be easily controlled by Chelsea in here, while the Blues will have a great matchup to produce some goals in here against Fulham's subpar defense. Therefore, I expect an easy win for Chelsea and so, I'll be taking them on the spread in here.
Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on Chelsea (-1,5) @ -114 / 1.88 on Pinnacle OR Betonline (same line)
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