Before the Premier League takes its fortnight break to make way for FA Cup action, bottom placed West Bromwich Albion travels to a struggling Chelsea.
Antonio Conte’s future at Stamford Bridge remains unclear, making this game important in terms of his fate.
Team news
Pedro is expected to start against the Baggies, after recovering from an injury picked up at Watford last Monday.
Marcos Alonso could also be in the starting eleven, having missed the away trip with fatigue.
Andreas Christiansen and Ross Barkley remain sidelined with hamstring injuries. The former however could feature here if fit enough.
Alvaro Morata is out indefinitely with a back injury.
Tiemoue Bakayoko is suspended after receiving two yellows and being sent off last week.
Alan Pardew could have Grzegorz Krychowiak and Kieran Gibbs back for this trip to the Capital.
Captain, Jonny Evans is struggling to shake off a back injury.
Jake Livermore and Hal Robson-Kanu are possible absentees if fail to overcome knocks.
James Morrison (Achilles) and Nacer Chadli (hip) remain out.
Form
Chelsea come into this game in terrible form, having won just twice in 2018 across all competitions.
During that period, they scored and leaked 12 goals apiece, whilst also going three consecutive games with a 0-0 result
In their three home league games during January, they failed to even net a single goal. The four goals at Stamford Bridge during that period, all came in the FA Cup excluding their penalty shootout against Norwich City.
West Brom meanwhile are struggling with just four points from their five league games so far in 2018.
That leaves them propping up the league table and seven adrift of safety, after an explosive weekend involving fellow relegation battling clubs.
Stat Attack
- Chelsea have won nine and drawn two of their eleven home Premier League matches against West Brom, scoring 26 and conceding five goals from those games combined.
- Alan Pardew has a (W2 D1 L5) record from eight league visits to Stamford Bridge with a top flight team.
- West Brom have lost all three meetings against Antonio Conte’s Blues wiwhout scoring.
Where will game be won and lost?
| Per game average | Chelsea (home) | WBA (away) |
| Corners | 7.77 | 4.08 |
| Fouls | 10.31 | 10.85 |
| Shots | 18.31 | 8.54 |
| Shots on Target | 7.23 | 2.54 |
| Goals | 1.62 | 0.54 |
| Yellow cards | 1.15 | 2 |
| Red cards | 3 | 1 |
* Stats provided by Footstats.co.uk
Chelsea should easily win this, if their superior stats in all areas of play at home are anything to go by.
Their discipline might however give the Baggies an opportunity to clinch something from the game.
Prediction
Despite pressure on Antonio Conte after Chelsea’s poor run, I can see Chelsea getting a comfortable win here.
Prediction: Chelsea 2-0 WBA
Jake predicts: Chelsea 1-1 WBA
Result: Chelsea 3-0 WBA
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