Having suffered a humiliating loss in midweek to Bayern Munich, in the UEFA Champions League competition, Chelsea FC may soon be able to focus entirely on their objective of finishing in the top four. Down 3-0 on aggregate, with still the road leg of the round of 16 tie to go, it appears the Blues’ European campaign is essentially over.
Chelsea manager Frank Lampard called the loss, and the manner in which they lost “sobering.” Up next is a Saturday visit to the south coast, where they’ll take on AFC Bournemouth. Winger Callum Hudson-Odoi should be healthy enough to feature, but we’re thinking only in an off the bench capacity. So we’ll leave him out of our predicted first team, for now.
Chelsea FC Starting XI Prediction at AFC Bournemouth
Caballero; James, Zouma, Rüdiger, Azpilicueta; Jorginho, Kovacic, Alonso; Mount, Giroud, Willian
Chelsea at AFC Bournemouth FYIs
February 29, 3 pm, Dean Court
Chelsea starting XI Prediction: go to this link
Key stat: While this might be a big vs. small club match-up, don’t tell that to the Cherries. In the last five meetings, across all competitions, they have outscored Chelsea 8-3 on aggregate.
Probabilities via Google: Chelsea FC win 54%, Draw 25%, AFC Bournemouth win 21%
Form Guide Chelsea FC WLDDL AFC Bournemouth LLWWL
Prediction: AFC Bournemouth 0, Chelsea FC 0
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
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