Chelsea – West Ham | 21/12/2020

Chelsea will be looking to return to winning ways in the Premier League when they welcome London rivals West Ham United to Stamford Bridge on Monday evening. The Blues have slipped down the table following back-to-back defeats, while the Hammers have lost only one of their last six and are one point behind their opponents.

These two ancient London rivals have fought one another on 98 occasions in the English top-flight, and Chelsea boast a slender advantage there (W40, D21, L37). However, they lost last season’s battle here 1-0, and defeat will see them complete a run of successive home league H2H losses vs West Ham for the first time since 1996.

After a 2-1 loss vs Wolves in midweek, Chelsea’s title challenge has badly faltered, but a home win is widely expected. Usually wasting no time in the act of picking up points, Chelsea have scored their first goal of the game before the 30th minute in each of their last four Premier League (PL) wins, thrice within the 20th-29th minute period.

With four wins in their last six, West Ham are one victory from spending Christmas above Chelsea in the table for only the fourth time ever in the PL’s existence (1992-present). Each of those four victories saw the decider arrive in the second half, while all three of West Ham’s away wins this term have seen them score exactly one second-half goal.

Notably, the ‘Hammers’ have never secured successive clean-sheet top-flight league wins at Chelsea. That is a possibility here, but the East London outfit have conceded the +1 handicap and lost both halves in four of their last five PL defeats here.

 

Date: 21/12/2020
Time: 23:00
Venue: Stamford Bridge (London)
Pick for this match:
“Both team to score YES” – @ 1.70 ( Betway )

About Post Author