Phil Scolari’s men have a 100% away record in the Premier League at the moment, and it’s hard to see the Baggies troubling it on Saturday evening. It’s bottom versus top at The Hawthorns, and despite Tony Mowbray’s team playing in front of a buoyant home crowd, firms are prepared to offer 11/1 (bet365) about a surprise home win.
Albion are without a win in five matches and are looking pretty shoddy defensively, having conceded at least two goals in every game since they beat Fulham 1-0 in early October. While they’ll look to try and keep things tight against Chelsea, many punters will not hesitate to include the visitors in their weekend accumulator bets, even at best odds of 4/11 (Skybet). The bookmakers are rightly running scared of a team who have managed sixteen goals in half a dozen away matches, while only conceding one at the other end.
It’s also worth noting that Chelsea have led at half-time in five of their six encounters on the road, suggesting that Paddy Power’s 5/6 about this happening against West Brom is cracking value. Only at Manchester City were Scolari’s men being held at the interval, although they needed a deflected Nicolas Anelka effort to get their noses in front at the break last weekend at Blackburn. Paddy are also offering even money about the Blues winning to nil, which again doesn’t make much sense when you consider they have managed this in every away game bar the one at Eastlands.
Anelka is in blistering form for the west London club at the moment, notching five goals in his last two outings. The Frenchman is 4/1 (Skybet) to open the scoring, and even money (bet direct) to score for the third match running. Frank Lampard has also been on the scoresheet in two of Chelsea’s last three matches, and the England midfielder is 7/5 (bet365) to find the net at The Hawthorns. Albion have got a couple of decent strikers themselves, with Roman Bednar (12/1 William Hill) managing four goals this term, and team-mate Ishmael Miller (12/1 Stan James) scoring in two of the past three matches for his club.