Chelsea head to the Turf Moor Thursday night to take on Burnley in a match-up of what could be England’s two entries into the UEFA Europa League next season. While the Blues may be significantly favored, it’s going to be a very tough battle for Antonio Conte’s men. Burnley are riding a hot streak, winners of five in a row, and they hold a nice advantage in the all time series.
The Clarets have won 33, the Blues 23, with 16 stalemates in the all time series.
With Marcos Alonso now suspended by the FA for this match, Blues boss Antonio Conte might select little used newcomer Emerson Palmieri for his first team. Because of the incident this past week, we did not predict Antonio Rudiger in our back line.
Elsewhere, David Luiz (knee), Ethan Ampadu (ankle) and Danny Drinkwater remain out for last year’s Premier League champions. Flipping over to the Burnley side, the hosts will be without Scott Arfield, Steven Defour, Ben Mee and Robbie Brady. Also, Georges-Kevin N’Koudou and Jon Walters could be match fit in time, but probably won’t be.
In other Chelsea news today, three preseason friendlies were announced this afternoon. Go to this link to see the dates and locations of the Blues’ exhibition matches this summer against Inter Milan, Sevilla and Arsenal.
Odds: Chelsea 5/6, Draw 12/5, Burnley 16/5
Chelsea Starting XI Prediction: go to this link
Prediction: Burnley 2, Chelsea 1
As always, feel free to post your own Chelsea and/or Burnley starting XI predictions, as well as your best guess as to what the final score will be.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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