CHELSEA take on Leicester in Saturday's FA Cup final showdown. Tom Love (@TomLove_18) shares his betting thoughts.
Chelsea vs Leicester | Saturday 15th May 2021, 17:15 | BBC
Two sides that actually meet in the league a few days after this cup final but surely both sides have full focus on this Wembley showdown on Saturday.
There could be an argument for Brendan Rodgers being the Manager of the Season should Leicester lift the trophy and secure a top-four spot this season. He’s done wonderful work since coming into the club and even when they’ve gone through dips, they’ve never gone on a long losing run, that’s credit to the gaffer.
The Foxes may meet their match here though. Chelsea have been excellent since Thomas Tuchel arrived in London – they’ve won 17 of their 25 games under him, keeping a mammoth 18 clean sheets too. It sounds simple but if you keep clean sheets at that rate, you’re going to win a large majority of games.
With this being a final, it is expected to be a tight and trappy affair, so instead of taking Chelsea to win at odds-on we can get 6/4 on them to win and Under 4 Goals in the match which looks a nice way of boosting the price.
I’ll also lap up the 5/2 on offer for a penalty to be awarded here. Referee Michael Oliver has pointed to the spot 23 times in 38 games, an average of over 0.6 per game, which is the highest in the league. He’s also got a penchant for given pens in the big games. I’d make this more of a 2/1 shot.
Given Mr Oliver has given multiple penalties in 7 games this term, the mammoth 45/1 on offer on both sides to score a penalty has to be a play on BetVictor’s BetBuilder market. There’s no way that should be such a big price.
There’s a couple of prop plays that stand out as well regarding German defender Antonio Rudiger. In a back three we have seen him happily charge out of defence and enter the middle of the park in an aggressive fashion.
It’s no surprise then to see his tackle stats fly up of late, he’s managed 2 or more this in 5 of his last 6 league games and 3 or more in 3 of his last 6, as well as the last Champions League game against Real Madrid. He’s 11/10 for 2+ tackles and 7/2 for 3+ tackles, both of which look too big should the Blues adopt a similar game plan to what they’ve done in the past few months.
Best Bets
Chelsea vs Leicester – Chelsea to win and Under 4 Goals (6/4 Bet365)
Chelsea vs Leicester – Penalty to be awarded (5/2 William Hill)
Chelsea vs Leicester – Both teams to score a penalty (45/1 BetVictor)
Chelsea vs Leicester – Antonio Rudiger 2+ tackles (11/10 SkyBet)
