Chelsea FC head to the Turf Moor for a midweek evening Premier League clash at Burnley FC. This match has some league relevance as Burnley are just two points behind Arsenal for sixth place, and a Europa League berth next season. What a coup that would be for a club that was just promoted in 2014 to usurp one of the Premiership’s big six.
As for Chelsea, they are seven points adrift of arch-rival Tottenham Hotspur for the final spot in the top four, meaning their hopes for Champions League next year are all but extinguished.
Chelsea had two players sent off as they were stunned 3-2 by Burnley at Stamford Bridge in August, and so revenge will be on their minds Thursday night.
With Marcos Alonso now suspended by the FA for this match, let’s take a look at who Blues boss Antonio Conte might select for his first team to battle the Clarets. Because of the incident this past week, we did not predict Antonio Rudiger in our back line.
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.
The Sports Bank’s Chelsea FC Starting XI Prediction:
Goalkeeper: Thibaut Courtois
Defenders: CB Gary Cahill, CB Cesar Azpilicueta, CB Andreas Christensen
Midfielders: LWB Emerson Palmieri, CM Cesc Fabregas, CM Victor Moses, N’Golo Kante
Forwards: LW Eden Hazard, CF Olivier Giroud, RW Willian
Odds: Chelsea 5/6, Draw 12/5, Burnley 16/5
Injury Report for both teams: go to this link
Prediction: Burnley 2, Chelsea 2
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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