There’s an old rule in gambling: you won’t win much money betting on the favourite.
You’ll make small profits, and when the favorite loses (which happens more than you think), you’ll lose all your winnings and then some.
Anyone who has bet on Chelsea this season could well be broke by now. Week by week, their standards drop, and though their odds are getting higher as car accident season progresses, the bookies still struggle to understand just how bad we are.
Next we take on Leeds United and we can see some interesting ways to earn money in the game. So even if you can’t trust Chelsea to make you happy with a win, you can at least use some free bet offers at Midnite to win some beer money to keep you entertained.
Leeds appointed Javi Gracia last week after sacking Jesse Marsch, and the Spaniard went to work immediately. They picked up a much-needed home win against Southampton on Saturday, and with that confidence boost in place, they now come to Stamford Bridge to try and pull off an unlikely win – one that wouldn’t actually be that unlikely.
Chelsea have a team worth billions of pounds and should beat Leeds easily. But as we’ve seen this season, it’s not that simple. Playing at home should also be an advantage for us, but in fact, given the rapidly building toxic atmosphere at Stamford Bridge, it could actually end up being a hindrance.
I really felt the mood finally changed when we played Southampton two weeks ago – losing at home to the 20th placed team will do that to a stadium. The loss to Tottenham yesterday was almost as bad, but at least it was away from home, so there were no bilious boos at full time.
Score well and early against Leeds and we could mount a positive spiral, but given our recent record in front of goal we wouldn’t expect us to score at all.
Gracia is a defensive manager at heart, and as he arrives at a new club and heads to Stamford Bridge, we expect him to establish himself in a very strong and structured setup. His team will seek to slow down the game and waste time, looking for the atmosphere to sour to try to take advantage of it.
They have a team with a lot of energy and a lot of pressure, with a lot of talent as well. If Gracia can regain some confidence in them (and it looks like she already has), they’ll be a real test for a Blues team that looks historically vulnerable.
So if you are betting under 2.5 goals in the game or under 0.5 goals in the first half look at the odds. Unless Graham Potter’s side suddenly find their shooting boots, a 1-0 win either way also looks like a decent bet.
If you could bet on boos full time, we’d bet on that too, but sadly we don’t know of any bookies that offer such a bet.
