After the second round of Champions League and Europa League games, we head back to the Premier League for Round 7. Liverpool has cashed in on City’s draw to Newcastle and drove home a 2-1 win away at Wolves to go to the top of the table. Arsenal continued their strong start with a convincing win over Leicester, but one of the biggest talking points of last week was Chelsea’s 4-2 thrashing of Brighton.
Brighton are by no means a pushover, having already beaten Man United and held back Arsenal to a draw, but Chelsea took no quarter as Cole Palmer scored 4 goals in a 6-goal first half. Chelsea will now host Nottingham Forest, and casting our eye a little further, they have Liverpool next, so a win on Sunday is crucial.
Chelsea vs Nottingham Forest Match Details
October 6, Sunday 14:00 BST @ Stamford Bridge
The game will be held at Stamford Bridge, where Chelsea have shown been mostly successful except for the opening round of the league, when they hosted City in a 0-2 loss. Forest are a bit streaky, but their recent win away at Liverpool will give their faithful fans a glimpse of hope. Chelsea must take the reigns early, as Forest is unpredictable.
Bet Builder EPL Chelsea vs Forest Analysis
Chelsea has climbed up into the 4th place in the Premier League, and are only a point off Arsenal and City, and 2 points off Liverpool. Granted, it’s early days, but the young team shows signs of living up to their full potential, as Enzo Maresca is proving to be a big hit among the Blues‘ players and supporters. Nuno Espirito Santo has had a patchy run of form lately, and the early exit from the EFL Cup will undoubtedly have shook the Portuguese manager. But they did beat Liverpool away, and Forest has on occasion shown inspired moments, but it may not be enough to quell Chelsea’s confidence levels riding into this game.
Chelsea Team Preview
All the talk in the Chelsea camp is about Cole Palmer, who has scored 6 goals (including his 4 goals against Brighton) in the EPL thus far. The Blues brought in Jadon Sancho from Man Utd this summer, as well as Joao Felix, Pedro Neto and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, in yet another Chelsea squad upheaval. The departures of Romelu Lukaku, Thiago Silva and Hakim Ziyech went pretty much unnoticed (with respect to those players), and it seems that Conor Gallagher’s position is well covered with Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandes, and Renato Veiga all holding the midfield.
We are not going to jump on the Palmer bandwagon, as tempting as it is, because we really haven’t found any good value offers in goalscorer markets on the English talent. The last week’s performance has put the oddsmakers in a frenzy, and while Palmer is a good shout to score, we would rather wait until the hype has settled down and the odds are slightly longer.
Forest Team Preview
Starting with the positives, Forest have a tough defensive unit in Nikola Milenkovic and Murillo, partnered with Ola Aina and Alex Moreno on the wings to frustrate opposing wingers and keep things tidy at the back. They don’t go down without a fight, and when they have lost, it has never been by more than 1 goal. Forest’s attack is led by the experienced Chris Wood, and with speedier options such as Emmanuel Dennis, Anthony Elanga and Jota Silva, they can catch any team on the counter.
But Forest are simply not scoring enough goals to realistically hold on to a place in the top half of the table. They attack on the counter, but have to work on their conversion rate in order to pose a real threat to the likes of Chelsea. Against Liverpool, Forest managed to absorb some dangerous attacks, and even produce a few good breaks, with Callum Hudon-Odoi smashing a long range effort beyond Allison. A result against Chelsea will need similar levels of focus, and luck.
Our Selections for Chelsea vs Forest
There are plenty of good markets for this game, and coming off the midweek games, there is definitely room for either a hard fought upset or for Chelsea to run away with another important early season win.
Who We Predict to Win
Forest’s record and defensive structure will be difficult for Chelsea to penetrate, and there is a strong chance that they will let Chelsea dominate the possession. Forest is good at staying alert in their defensive third, and taking on the likes of Palmer, Sancho, Noni Madueke and Nicolas Jackson will require experience. Even in Chelsea’s bigger wins, their opponents still manage to squeeze out a good 10 or so shots, so we are expecting this to be a tighter game.
Our cappers are backing Chelsea to win, but not by a big margin. Forest will fight to the last minute, and there is every chance that they can get in a goal to keep the game pulsating until the final mintues.
Chelsea Moneyline @ 10/21
Good Value in Bookings
Chelsea have not had much trouble with bookings so far, but the Cucurella and Wesley Fofana have both seen yellow in the past 3 consecutive games. Forest have also tallied plenty of yellow cards in recent games, and should this game be close, there is definitely room for bookings.
The last game between the two brought 5 yellow cards, and Chelsea won the game away 2-3. Before that, Forest fought a 1-0 win at Stamford Bridge, and there were 7 yellow cards. We will up the ante here, picking a higher betting line of 6.5 and bet on Over.
Over 6.5 Yellow Cards @ 2/1
Can Tough Defenses Bring More Corners
A lot of Chelsea’s driving force comes from Sancho and Madueke on the wings, and they will need to be especially quick to break Forest’s defensive lines. Adding Palmer’s longshots and we have a recipe for lots of corners. We don’t expect Forest to be awarded more corners than Chelsea at all, but they could still register 2 or 3 if they can Hudson-Odoi, Chris Wood and Ward-Prowse get opportunities to drive long range efforts. We could easily see a handful of corners this game as Forest struggles to put Chelsea on the back foot, and on the other end, Chelsea looks for inventive ways around the Forest defense.
Over 10.5 Corners @ 4/5
BettingTools EPL Chelsea vs Forest Acca
We reckon that this game will be a lot closer than paper form suggests. Chelsea will play Genk in the Conference League midweek, so they will have less time than Forest to recover. Also, it is one of the last games of the weekend, so by that time Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City should all realistically pick up points, adding further pressure on Chelsea.
