West Brom v Chelsea: Time for Timo to open his Blues account

Newly promoted West Bromwich Albion are the hosts as Chelsea visit The Hawthorns in Saturday’s early evening Premier League clash.

The Baggies last win against came when they entertained Chelsea in 2015 and beat them 3-0 and although the result was something of a shock, it was inconsequential, as the Londoners had already claimed their fifth League Title.

In the five subsequent encounters, Chelsea have won four and drawn one. In 2017, a late goal from Michy Batshuayi was the only difference between the two sides at The Hawthorns as Antonio Conte’s side wrapped up Chelsea’s sixth league Title.

The last meeting between the two sides was in February 2018 at Stamford Bridge and saw a brace from Eden Hazard and a goal scored by Victor Moses give Chelsea a 3-0 win.

In the reverse meeting earlier that season, another brace from Hazard and one each from Alvaro Morata and Marcos Alonso ensured a comfortable 4-0 win for Antonio Conte’s side.

There will be two familiar faces awaiting Chelsea’s arrival in the West Midlands in the shape of Conor Gallagher who has joined West Brom on a season long loan while former Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanović joined the Baggies on a year’s deal after a successful spell in Russia with Zenit St Petersburg.

Following the 6-0 League Cup win against Barnsley, it is likely that Chelsea manager Frank Lampard will keep the majority of players in his starting line-up for Saturday’s 5.30pm start.

But midweek signing Edouard Mendy may well start in goal although, should it be decided that he’s not ready, Willy Caballero did enough on Wednesday evening to justify a start.

It seems likely that both Thiago Silva and Ben Chilwell will also make their first league starts for The Blues.

After Chelsea’s defeat to reigning Champions Liverpool last Sunday, their task against bottom of the table West Brom should – on paper at least – be an easier ask of the Stamford Bridge side.

With Timo Werner yet to break his duck goal wise, I will again be placing a moderate bet on him to score the first goal of the game, the odds for that occurrence being 3.50 with our friends at FansBet who are also offering our social media followers a £25 FREE bet this weekend.

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About the Author

Londoner David Johnstone is a home, away and European away Chelsea supporter and has missed just six matches since 2001 (although he’s quick to state there are plenty of other supporters with better attendance records than him).

He has been involved with the fanzine scene at Chelsea since around 1991 and started the ‘cfcuk’ fanzine in 1999 which was, until Mr Abramovich bought the club in 2003, named ‘Matthew Harding’s Blue And White Army’.

David was also responsible for forming both the Chelsea Supporters’ Group and the Chelsea Supporters’ Trust which are the main two bodies that represent the followers of Chelsea FC and take their concerns to those running the club.

A founder of the highly regarded Chelsea FanCast weekly podcast (but is no longer involved) and responsible for the crowd surfing banners and supporter displays that are seen in the Matthew Harding Stand at Stamford Bridge on matchdays.

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