West Bromwich Albion will be looking to shake off a disastrous return to top-flight football when the host moneybags Chelsea at The Hawthorns on Saturday.
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The Baggies did well to finish second in the Championship under Slaven Bilic last season, but their late-season shaky form has carried on into the top flight, losing 3-0 to Leicester and 5-2 to Everton in their opening two games to go to the bottom of the table. Even worse, they got knocked out of the EFL Cup after losing on penalties to Brentford in midweek.
The omens do not look good for them. The eight goals they have conceded to start this campaign is not just the most of any team this season, but also the most they have ever conceded in the first two fixtures on a season.
Slaven Bilic will need to turn that around against a team boasting of the most potent attacking forces in the league following new acquisitions this summer. It seemingly might get worse before it gets better for them.
Despite splashing the cash in the transfer market this summer, Chelsea were underwhelming in their visit to Anfield last weekend, as Liverpool ran them off the pitch for the majority of the game and got a 2-0 win for their effort. The telltale signs were evident in their first outing at Brighton, where despite winning 3-1, they were second best for most of that match too.
The 6-0 EFL Cup home win was a welcome respite for them as they got a chance to blend in the new players with little pressure.
The challenge now remains for coach Lampard to seamlessly fit in all the pieces in place and in time to build good chemistry and possibly challenge for the title.
West Brom are a team in disarray at the moment. Despite finishing second to Leeds in the Championship last season, they failed to win any of their final five matches of the season in the Championship and have carried that woeful form into the Premier League. The Chelsea project may still be a work in progress but Frank Lampard couldn’t have picked a better opponent to try and implement his style with the new players. We are backing them to go on the rampage here and we are picking handicap +1 Chelsea Win @ 1.96 with Bet9ja as our first betting prediction.
Chelsea’s goals in midweek might encourage Lampard to try out the more attacking 4-2-3-1 formation given the wealth of attacking talents at his disposal. Timo Werner did not feature in that midweek game but he is certainly set to lead the lines in this game. He hasn’t scored yet for his new club but he has been a handful on the attack, winning them two penalties. He is clearly due for a goal and if there is any game to break the ice, it’s got to be this one. We are backing him to score anytime @ 1.75 with Bet9ja betting app as our final prediction for this match.
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