Chelsea travel to Upton Park to take on West Ham, and are 1.91 shots with
bet365 and
Paddy Power to beat their London rivals.
The stats are certainly good as far as the Blues are concerned as they have won 10 and lost none of the last 12 Premier League meetings with the Hammers.
The home side have also won just one of their last five league home matches (W1 D3 L1), so everything looks good at first glance for a Chelsea victory.
However things haven’t gone quiet to plan since Rafa Benitez took over, and two 0-0 draws have done little to change the opinion of the vast majority of fans that he is nothing but a negative appointment.
The Spaniard claims to know the key to getting the best out of Fernando Torres, and this could be the game to see if that is right after he once again put in a poor performance against Fulham in midweek.
Torres has scored six goals in six league appearances against West Ham – more than against any other opponent in the competition.
So if Benitez does have the key to him getting back on the goals trail he could be a bit of value at 6.5 with
bet365 and
Boylesports to score the opener.
He can also be backed at 2.63 with
Boylesports with to net anytime, and that looks a fair price given his record against West Ham.
However in his current form he cannot be backed with any confidence, and I prefer to side with Frank Lampard who is 9.5 with
bet365 to bag the first and 3.6 with the same firm to get on the scoresheet during the 90 minutes.
Another interesting stat is that West Ham have scored just eight goals in their last 13 PL games against the Blues and never more than once in a game during that run.
That makes backing Chelsea to win 2-0 or 2-1 look well worth considering, and those outcomes are priced up at 9 and 8.5 with
Paddy Power and
bet365respectively.