Chelsea FC head to Vicarage Road tonight to face a Watford side that is currently in free fall down the Premier League table. Facing a side that is winless in their last five Premier League contests, with their last victory coming back on Boxing Day, could be exactly what the Blues need right now.
Chelsea suffered an awful 3-0 home loss to AFC Bournemouth on Wednesday, and Antonio Conte’s men will be looking to come correct off the heels of that.
Apparently Conte’s seat continues to warm, and it’s only going to get scorching hot from here on out as the top four race heats up even more. Some of the remarks that Conte has made in public only serve as added fuel to the fire of sacking speculation. Dropping points here would certainly not help the case that he deserves to keep his job.
Conte said that he would appreciate a vote of confidence from Chelsea brass, and that he is open to the possibility of holding talks about a contract extension in the summer.
Looking more at short term concerns, Chelsea come in to Monday night’s fixture a bit banged up and we took that into account upon making our first team prediction, which obviously isn’t the strongest side that we’ve seen Chelsea field this season.
Here is our Chelsea FC Starting XI Prediction:
Goalkeeper: Thibaut Courtois
Defenders: Gary Cahill, Cesar Azpilicueta, Antonio Rudiger
Midfielders: N’Golo Kante, Tiemoue Bakayoko, Victor Moses, Marcos Alonso
Forwards: Eden Hazard, Pedro, Willian
Odds: Chelsea FC 8/13, Draw 3/1, Watford 21/4
Prediction: Chelsea FC 2, Watford 1
As always, feel free to post your own Chelsea starting XI prediction, and/or the match final score prediction in the comments section.
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.
Follow him on Twitter, Instagram, Sound Cloud, LinkedIn and YouTube.