Chelsea v Leicester: Goals to flow in Stamford Bridge battle

CHELSEA welcome Leicester to Stamford Bridge on Super Sunday. Daniel McCulloch (@DMcCulloch1984) delivers his best bet verdict.

Chelsea v Leicester | Sunday 18th August 2019, 16:30 | Sky Sports

Having been far more complimentary about Leicester pre-season than I was about Frank Lampard's Chelsea, I must confess that performances to date suggest I may well have been wrong, particularly about the West London outfit. The 4-0 loss at Old Trafford really didn't do them justice and while they looked very poor defensively at times against both Manchester United and Liverpool in midweek, they created chances at will in both encounters.

I expect that to be a theme of this season, as it was when Lampard was at Derby. Including the play-off matches last term, 30 of The Rams 49 matches (61%) saw both sides find the net. With this in mind, I like the look of the 10/11 on offer with Betfred on Both Teams To Score.

Eden Hazard was arguably the best attacker in the Premier League over the last few seasons and his loss obviously makes Chelsea look less potent in attack. However, Christian Pulisic looks like a decent addition and presuming Olivier Giroud is preferred to Tammy Abraham I expect Chelsea to create – and take – plenty of chances in this encounter.

Leicester looked rather impotent against Wolves last weekend but I am prepared to overlook that given that The Foxes scored 17 goals in Brendan Rodgers 10 matches at the end of last season. They have plenty of speed and creativity in their ranks and I fancy that they can find the net against a Chelsea backline that looks far from secure at present.

I do also like the look of the aforementioned Giroud to score first at around 5/1 but I will make ‘Both Teams To Score' my only pre-match recommendation.