EPL Odds: West Brom Face Leaders Chelsea

Chelsea (-333) vs West Brom (+1400), Draw (+525)

League leaders Chelsea (11-1-2, 34 points) will look to consolidate their lead at the top of the EPL this week when they welcome a middling West Brom (5-5-4, 20) to Stamford Bridge (Sunday, December 11) in the fifteenth fixture of the Premier League.

After beating Manchester City last week in convincing fashion (3-1), Chelsea are now comfortably in first place a full three points clear of second-place Arsenal. Their dominance over Guardiola’s boys has put them as the early favorite to win the Premier League this season, though the season is still young. If they’re going to stay at the top, they need to keep taking the full three against middle of the pack teams (like West Brom) at home.

The current Chelsea squad under Antonio Conte has leaned heavily on the counter-attack, playing a lot of through-balls and relying on Diego Costa’s finishing. The clinical striker now has eleven goals to his name this season. Eden Hazard follows with eight, and Pedro, Victor Moses, and Willian each have three.

Chelsea is well and truly back to playing like the league-winning team we have come to know, and the bookmakers expect them to have an easy game this weekend against West Brom.

Relatively speaking, West Brom are having a pretty good season too. They’re currently in seventh place, which is huge improvement from their 14th-place finish last season. They’ve only won one more game than they’ve lost, though, and have a modest +3 goal differential. They don’t muster much offense on a weekly basis, potting just 20 goals through 14 games. 

Midfielder Nacer Chadli and striker Salomon Rondon are tied for the scoring lead with four goals each, while defender Gareth McAuley has somehow managed to score three. Scottish trio Matt Phillips, James Morrison, and Darren Fletcher also have goals to their name.

A win for West Brom could see them leapfrog Manchester United in the standings, which would put them in sixth place behind Tottenham. Not bad for a side that’s famous for its derby against Wolverhampton. 

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The chances of West Brom beating the current Chelsea side are very slim. Conte has found a system that is tailored to the Blues’ strengths, defending vigorously and relying on quick and devastating counter-attacks. Chelsea have conceded the fewest goals out of any Premier League side (11) and their 32 goals-for trail only Liverpool (35) and Arsenal (33). There’s every reason to think they’ll handle the Baggies with ease. 

Pick: Chelsea (-333)

Photo credit: “Cesc Fàbregas” by Alec Osipov, CC BY-SA 2.0 [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0], via Flickr.