Chelsea v Swansea: Welsh club on for London point
Published:Since winning the Capital One Cup in some style, Swansea have taken their foot off the gas, but their excellent Premier League record with Chelsea can continue owing to the Blues’ inconsistencies under Rafa Benitez.
At 4/1, the draw isn’t beyond the south Wales outfit, despite the fact that they’ve lost three of their previous five and drawn the remaining two. However, their point at Norwich in their most recent foray across the border could have easily been three and their performance at Stamford Bridge in the Capital One Cup semi final, in particular, should give Michael Laudrup’s men confidence.
In five meetings since Swansea established themselves amongst the country’s elite, the west Londoners have only toppled them once; an emphatic 4-1 win in their first collision.
Since then, however, they haven’t had things quite so easy, drawing three and losing one.
That one loss, the aforementioned 2-0 semi-final first-leg triumph, saw Chelsea completed outplayed by the perfect away performance with Swansea soaking up any pressure their hosts applied before ruthlessly punishing the errors they made.
A similar set up will no doubt be adopted here and, while there’s a lot less on the line for the visitors as there is for Chelsea, they can still win a share of the spoils here.
Rafa Benitez’ has done a decent job in challenging circumstances at Chelsea, yet his side have struggled for consistency, while they have looked unconvincing in plenty of instances this term.
They’ve won four from six Premier League games, but only two by more than the solitary goal and strings of three points are hard to find when studying their results for the campaign.
They haven’t lost at the Bridge since Swansea’s cup success in fairness, but a few spanners have been thrown in the works in the shape of unexpected draws with Southampton and Sparta Prague.
If the Swans can reciprocate the resolution they exemplified on their last trip to Chelsea, they can add their name to that pair by taking a point back to Wales.
All odds and markets accurate as of publication’s time and date
