This weekend, Chelsea plays Brentford in Premier League action with the goal of extending their unbeaten run to five games. The Blues had defeated Brighton, Fulham, and Burnley before facing Arsenal last weekend, helping Mauricio Pochettino’s team bounce back from a challenging start.
Pochettino will be hoping that his recent success continues in the London derby against Brentford, which is the next matchup. Chelsea continues to struggle with injuries in some areas, but last Saturday saw the return of both Reece James and Benoit Badiashile to the matchday squad, with both players possibly starting.
The Blues play at noon on Saturday, and if they win, they could climb up to eighth place, above West Ham and Manchester United, before their Sunday match. Last season, the Bees defeated Chelsea 4-0, including a 2-0 triumph at Stamford Bridge. However, Paul Merson and Chris Sutton do not anticipate a similar outcome this time around.
In his Sportskeeda predictions column, Merson stated, “Chelsea were rolling the other day; they were comfortably the better team than Arsenal for 75 minutes of that contest.” Declan Rice’s strike was the result of Robert Sanchez’s blood rush, and all of a sudden Arsenal had equalized and appeared to have a late victory.
“Having said that, if you ignore the final fifteen minutes, Chelsea controlled and appeared to maintain their winning run goal with a decisive victory. They should easily defeat Brentford; therefore, I’m going with a 2-0 victory. Cole Palmer has proven in recent weeks that he is very much a player for the present and the future, as I stated when they signed him. He is a fine player. Because he is accustomed to this type of conditioning at Manchester City and has performed admirably lately, he is capable of opening defenses.”
Merson’s pick: Chelsea 2-0 Brentford
“I think that’s a good shout,” Sutton wrote in his BBC Sport predictions column. “Sophia has gone with Chelsea to edge this one.” Brentford’s most recent victory over Burnley snapped a six-game losing streak, but Chelsea seems to be getting better every week.
Under Mauricio Pochettino, they haven’t quite figured it out yet, but they are making progress. They were undoubtedly the superior team for the majority of their match against Arsenal last weekend, and they were frustrated to come away with a tie. I’m going to pick Chelsea, but every time I do, they manage to ruin the surprise. I definitely anticipate losing this one since Brentford is precisely the kind of team that could upset them too.”
Sutton projects a score of : 2-1
