JUVENTUS welcome Chelsea in Wednesday night's Champions League showdown. Tom Love (@TomLove_18) shares his betting thoughts.
Juventus vs Chelsea | Wednesday 29th September 2021, 20:00 | BT Sport
Chelsea will be looking to bounce back from a rare deserved defeat against Manchester City as they head to Turin to take on Juventus. Juve are now back under the watch of Max Allegri, a man who had sustained success with the Bianconeri in his last spell at the club and the Agnelli family will be hoping he can restore former glories not just domestically but on the continent too.
He’s had a tricky start though and has been visibly angry at his players for failing to meet his high standards, particularly from a defensive standpoint. Incredibly the Old Lady have failed to keep a Serie A clean sheet in their last 20 games and given Alvaro Morata and Paulo Dybala are likely to be ruled out it leaves them light at the top of the pitch as well as suspect at the other end.
Thomas Tuchel did superbly well with Chelsea in this competition last season, overcoming some really tough tests to ultimately win the competition. It was their superb backline efforts that was the cornerstone of their success and that’s largely carried into this season. There’s a great shape about this side but it rarely means they take any teams to the cleaners.
It’s no surprise to see Chelsea as firm favourites even with this being away from home, however the odds-on quotes don’t do it for me. Instead I’ll chance the classic Chelsea to win and under 3.5 goals at 13/8 (SkyBet).
In the Tuchel era it has copped in the large majority of wins the Blues have had, It also landed in matchday 1 against Zenit and I think Allegri will be hell bent on getting his ideals onto the pitch and look to avoid a mullering.
I’ll dip into the props market too and have a play on lively winger Federico Chiesa to have over 1.5 shots in the match at 5/6 (Bet365). I’m surprised his line isn’t 2.5 here given his record, he’s hit 3, 4 and 2 shots in each of his starts this season in Serie A and at the Euros for Italy he hit 4, 3, 5, 2 and 3 shots in games where he played at least half an hour.
Last season Chiesa averaged around 2.5 shots per 90. Given the absences of Morata and Dybala someone will have to pick up the mantle and Chiesa seems like a player with plenty of belief and loves to have a pop, even from his Fiorentina days.
Best Bets
Juventus vs Chelsea – Chelsea to win and Under 3.5 Goals (13/8 SkyBet)
Juventus vs Chelsea – Federico Chiesa Over 1.5 Shots (5/6 Bet365)
