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West Brom v Chelsea: free-scoring Baggies can test fragile Blues

| 02.03.2012

Arsenal’s 5-2 thumping of Tottenham Hotspur at the weekend means Chelsea are now out of the Champions League places and continue to be under pressure to deliver.

While things haven’t been going to plan for Andre Villas-Boas, for West Bromwich Albion and Roy Hodgson, things have been ticking along very nicely in recent weeks.

They have won their last two and have put clear daylight between them and the bottom three.

With the Baggies in very decent form, this promises to be another tough test for Villas-Boas’ men.

Match odds

Chelsea are the 10/11 favourites for this clash but they shouldn’t have things all their own way.

The Blues have won just one of their previous six games on the road in the Premier League and lost their last away game 3-1 at Napoli.

The Italian side are obviously in a different class to West Brom but, with Andre Villas-Boas’ men struggling for form on the road, the Blues are hardly brimming with confidence.

While the 3/1 offered for the Baggies to win may be tempting, backing the draw at 12/5 could prove to be the most sensible punt.

Goal markets

There hasn’t been a goalless draw between these sides since 1975 and, with the Baggies bagging nine goals in their previous two league games, goals look guaranteed in this encounter.

Also, with only one of the previous seven meetings between these sides yielding less than three goals, backing over 2.5 goals in this clash is tempting at 5/6.

Meanwhile, with Frank Lampard showing he’s far from finished by becoming the first player to score ten league goals in nine consecutive Premier League seasons with his strike against Bolton at the weekend, he is 6/1 to open the scoring this Saturday.

Finally, with five goals in his last two games Peter Odemwingie is 9/4 to score at any time.

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Author

Richard Anderson