Back quickfire Chelsea to keep up first-day fun
The Blues stuttered through pre-season but they rarely stall when the business begins and can be expected to beat Wigan at the DW Stadium.
From the end of last season to the beginning of the 2012/13 Premier League campaign, Chelsea have once again found themselves dominating many of the column inches and football phone-ins. But after a summer in which the powers that be at Stamford Bridge have made another new managerial appointment and brought in a host of new players, the talking finally stops ahead of a trip to Wigan Athletic.
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Last year’s sixth-placed finish was the lowest of the Roman Abramovich era and even their FA Cup and Champions League successes could not mask the domestic deficiencies of finishing a massive 25 points behind eventual champions Manchester City.
A £65 million summer overhaul has been sanctioned to elevate the Blues back to the top of English football but even with Didier Drogba, Salomon Kalou and Jose Bosingwa gone and Eden Hazard, Oscar and Marko Marin arriving, this ‘new’ Chelsea will immediately feel very familiar.
| Premier League | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chelsea win | £33.00 | (13/20) | ||
| Draw | £75.00 | (11/4) | ||
| Everton win | £100.00 | (4/1) | ||
| Chelsea | 0-0 | Everton | £200.00 | (9/1) |
| Chelsea | 1-0 | Everton | £160.00 | (7/1) |
| Chelsea | 1-1 | Everton | £140.00 | (6/1) |
By the time they kick off against Wigan at the DW Stadium on Sunday afternoon, the only addition to the starting XI previously so adrift of the pacemakers will be £32 million Belgian playmaker Hazard, with German winger Marin doubtful with a hamstring injury and Oscar set for a place on the bench at best after Olympic excursions.
Given their impressive record on opening weekends and the potential potency of Hazard and Juan Mata flirting off Torres, I’ll just be siding with the southerners to edge this.
Nevertheless, Roberto di Matteo’s men are 4/1 third favourites to finish top dogs in bwin’s Premier League outright winner market, behind Manchester United at 7/4 and City at 5/4.
Abramovich is likely to splash the cash further before the end of the summer transfer window but before that, in the face of intense scrutiny from the press and public and under pressure to keep pace with the Manchester giants, the Blues will need to get off to a seamless start – a quest which begins with the trip to face Roberto Martinez’s wiley Wigan.
But if there’s ever a team you can usually rely on to be sharp out of the blocks then it is Chelsea. Under various guises the Blues have won 12 of their last 13 openers – including the last ten on the trot – and bwin’s 3Way betting market has them 11/20 to return south with the maximum haul.
In contrast, the Latics have lost five of their previous seven first-day fixtures, picking up just four points from a potential 21. They also fell to early defeats on their patch to Chelsea in 2005, 2008 and 2010.
Wigan are therefore priced at 5/1 to be on the ‘b’ of the bang and pick up three points, with the draw at 29/10.
Given that it’s been almost 100 days since either of these two were last in league action it’s difficult to ascertain form as such, but Di Matteo’s 11 Premier League fixtures in charge of Chelsea have yielded just 18 points, while over the same period, Wigan clocked up an impressive 23 to finish a comfortable seven points clear of the drop zone.
However, that’s all been and gone and working from a fresh page, I feel this game will be much closer than many are anticipating. Wigan will fancy getting at a Chelsea defence who have shipped ten goals in their last four pre-season matches. But then again, Fernando Torres looked a bundle of fun in last weekend’s Community Shield and last time he was in this parish he notched on one of his farewell appearances for Liverpool.
Given their impressive record on opening weekends and the potential potency of Hazard and Juan Mata flirting off Torres, I’ll just be siding with the southerners to edge this.
Nevertheless, I can see Wigan getting on the scoresheet.
Chelsea with over 2.5 goals in the game is 29/20 but even more precise than that is the 2-1 Chelsea at 29/4 and that’s where I’ll be placing my money on this one.
If you fancy going along with my tip, new customers who register with bwin receive a free £20 bet. Putting that on Chelsea to win 2-1 will pocket you £165 to kick off the new season if it proves successful.
One other bet to consider is Torres to get the ball rolling given his sprightly form and you can back him to break the deadlock at 7/2.
Recommended bet: Wigan 1-2 Chelsea @ 29/4
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