Top meets bottom in the Premier League as Chelsea welcome Norwich City to Stamford Bridge.
Victory will see Chelsea stay top of the league, whilst Norwich can climb to 18th with a win and move to within a point of escaping the relegation zone.
Team News
Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner are set to be ruled out for Chelsea after suffering respective ankle and hamstring injuries in Wednesday’s Champions League win over Malmo.
Christian Pulisic (ankle) is unlikely to be risked until he is declared match fit.
Norwich will be without Billy Gilmour who is ineligible to face his parent club as per terms of his loan conditions.
Przemyslaw Placheta (fitness) and Todd Cantwell (Achilles) are doubts but Sam Byram (thigh) and Christoph Zimmerman (ankle) are ruled out.
Stat Attack
- Chelsea are unbeaten in 12 Premier League meetings against Norwich this century (W10, D2).
- Norwich are winless in their last seven league visits to Stamford Bridge (D1, L6).
- Three of Chelsea’s four goals against Norwich in 2019-20 season were scored by now former strikers – Tammy Abraham (2) and Olivier Giroud (1).
- Both of Ben Chilwell’s two league goals for Chelsea this season has been scored on his left foot.
- With two clean sheets in their last two matches, Norwich have already matched their total number of clean sheets kept in 2019-20 season.
Prediction
Having edged past a difficult encounter at Brentford last weekend before thrashing Malmo in midweek, Chelsea should be relishing this clash given that Norwich’s quality is probably comparable to Malmo but Lukaku and Werner’s injuries could well make it harder up front for the Blues.
Norwich meanwhile have grinded out two consecutive goalless draws coming into this match in which they defended excellently, yet lacked the intelligent instinct to clinically pounce on rare chances which is their biggest weakness as Josh Sargent proved last week after missing an easy goal against Brighton.
This though is surely Norwich’s best chance of a result because unless Hakim Ziyech, Kai Havertz and Callum Hudson-Odoi can step up for the Blues up front, which should hopefully mean a closer fight than expected but I still fancy Chelsea to find a win.
Prediction: Chelsea 2-0 Norwich
Result: Chelsea 7-0 Norwich
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