Title contenders Chelsea and Tottenham lock horns at the Stamford Bridge on Sunday in a top-of-the-table clash that has all the ingredients of a potentially explosive encounter.
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Chelsea booked their ticket to the round-of-16 in the Champions League with a 2-1 away win over Rennes on Tuesday night for their sixth win on the trot. Veteran striker Olivier Giroud came off the bench to head home the winning goal in injury after the French had levelled the scores in the 85th minute through Serhou Guirassy.
The Blues are in great form having played the last 10 games without defeat (6W, 4D). Their last defeat, ironically came against Tottenham back at the end of September when they lost on penalties to Spurs after a 1-1 stalemate in the round of 16 in the League Cup.
Since then, Frank Lampard has seen his top dollar summer acquisitions slowly blending into the team play and that has yielded great returns for his side.
Tottenham also won their midweek assignment as they breezed past Ludogorets with a convincing 4-0 win in Wembley on Thursday night, despite resting most of their starters for the game. Brazilian forward Carlos Vinicius, a summer acquisition, on loan from Benfica, made the most of his first start for Spurs with a first-half double and a second-half assist for Lucas to round up the scores.
Spurs too have been on a scorching run with just one defeat in their last 17 matches across all competitions. They top the table with 20 points and underlined their title credentials for this season last time out with a clinical 2-0 over a highly fancied Manchester City. They inflicted even more pain in the other half of Manchester when they thrashed Manchester United 6-1 at Old Trafford earlier in the season.
This will certainly be another litmus test for their title aspirations.
It’s easy to say that Chelsea might have a slight edge having had a couple of extra days of rest with Spurs just coming off a Thursday night Europa League match. That has however been a non-factor in Spurs games this season. If anything, they actually rested their big guns for that Ludogorets match. Although the newly acquired Chelsea forwards have started getting their act together, they are still some lingering questions at the back. Spurs have proven they can go head-to-head with the top teams. Mourinho has gotten the team to buy into his style and the results speak for themselves. We are backing them to win or draw @ 1.78 with Melbet as our first betting tip.
There is so much riding on this game. It’s a top of the table clash. But just as important, it is a London derby, with bragging rights at play. There is also the master v apprentice battle as a sub-plot as Lampard takes on his former coach Mourinho. All these point to a likely closely contested and overly physical game. Centre referee Paul Tierney is likely to have a busy game and we fancy over 4.5 bookings for this game @ 2.06 with Melbet as our final tip here.
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