Chelsea meet London rivals, Tottenham Hotspur at Stamford Bridge in the first blockbuster clash of the 2022-23 Premier League season.
Victory would see Chelsea leapfrog their visitors into the top three, whereas a win of three goals or more would see Tottenham return to the summit.
Team News
Marcos Alonso is ruled out for Chelsea as he continues to finalise a complicated transfer to Barcelona.
Mateo Kovacic meanwhile is sidelined with a knee injury.
Tottenham will be without Clement Lenglet as he recovers from an adductor injury.
Oliver Skipp is also absent as he recovers from a foot injury.
Stat Attack
- Chelsea have dropped just two points from their last seven league meetings against Tottenham (W6, D1).
- Tottenham have won just one of their last five league visits to Stamford Bridge (W1, D1, L3).
- Chelsea’s Thiago Silva scored in both league meetings against Tottenham last season (W2).
- Chelsea have avoided defeat in three of their last five opening home matches of a new season (W2, D1, L2).
- Nine of Spurs’ last ten away goals in the Premier League have been scored by Son Heung-min (6) and Dejan Kulusevski (3).
Prediction
Having fought their way to a scrappy win over Everton with great defending and game management to keep the ball largely in the corners for prolonged periods of time, Chelsea now have to step up their game because Tottenham won’t settle for that sort of play.
Antonio Conte however will be hoping his Spurs team make a more energetic start than they did against Southampton, yet they didn’t seem too fazed as they struck back for a clinical win with fantastic improvement in intensity and attacking press.
Now if they can bring that quality into this match and Chelsea don’t fancy an open-play contest, I can see them getting a fairly routine win as I expect them to press hard in packs if Chelsea try to repeat their game management tactics from last week.
Prediction: Chelsea 1-2 Tottenham
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