Chelsea might not have had the preseason you'd expect out of a defending Barclays Premier League champion. That said, the Blues are still deservingly heavy favorites against up and coming Swansea City in their first match in defense of their 2014-15 crown.
ODDS ANALYSIS
Chelsea is one of the toughest teams in the Premier League to bet on. The Blues are always favored, and they're virtually always favored by more than a goal here at home.
However, it's tough to justify anything less against teams which project out to be nothing but mid-table fodder. Swansea had a fine season last year, finishing eighth best on the table, but that's the ceiling for Garry Monk and the crew.
Chelsea being favored by a -270 margin is completely warranted.
A total of 2.5 and -127 vig for the over is rather par for the course for a match like this one, though it should be noted that Chelsea's average home game last year featured just 2.39 goals per game.
KEY INJURIES
All eyes are going to be on the great Diego Costa in this fixture. Costa has been dealing with a hamstring issue all offseason long, and he's the only question mark for Chelsea heading into this one of any major note.
Swansea City remains confident that its only major injury issue, a foot injury to Jordi Amat, will be healed in time for him to debut at Stamford Bridge.
QUOTE TO NOTE
"Will Costa be fit for Swansea? I don't know. You think I'm lying, but I'm not. Two days ago, he was ready to play against yesterday he trained normal. He had a little problem after the Barcelona game. After that, he was training normally, and we thought he would be ready, but then he was feeling uncomfortable." – Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho on Diego Costa, who has been in and out of the lineup all preseason with recurring hamstring issues
RECENT FORM
We hope you like 1-1 draws. That's all we've seen so far out of Swansea here in the preseason. The Swans picked up identical finals against Mongladbach, Reading and Nottingham Forest in the preseason, though it hasn't been in a competitive fixture since July 25.
Chelsea meanwhile, was a bit of a mixed bag. There were times against Barcelona where the Blues looked like they might have the best squad in the world. They won in a shootout against the UCL winners, but the results aside from that have been suspect at best.
The Blues were beaten in the International Champions Cup by the New York Red Bulls, PSG and Fiorentina, while the important preseason fixture, the Community Shield was lost to Arsenal 1-0, a result which didn't sit well with the supporters of the defending Premier League champions.
ANALYSIS AND PREDICTION
Last season, Chelsea whooped up on Swansea City 4-2 at home and 5-0 on the road, and there's little reason to expect anything different in this one, even if Costa doesn't end up playing.
Just look at the names! Falcao, Hazard, Matic, Salah, Traore, Cahill, Terry… the list could go on and on.
Chelsea was the most dominating side in the Premier League last year at 26-9-3, and that 36-9 goal differential at home was flat out awesome.
We have no doubt that Swansea isn't scoring in this match after netting fewer goals last year than any team which finished 11th or better in the BPL last term. Lay the goal and a half with confidence.
Chelsea 2, Swansea 0
BookMaker has BPL lines for every match of the season. Chelsea is lined as a -270 moneyline favorite, while the total is set at 2.5. You can make a futures bet and predict the champion, wager on head-to-head matchups or use BookMaker’s live betting feature to gamble while the match is happening.
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