Chelsea welcome Southampton as race for the title heats up

Published on April 23rd, 2017 3:39 pm EST
Written By: Cian Murray
Chelsea's victory over Spurs in the FA Cup on Saturday means that the London side are still on course for an impressive domestic double. Of course, their Premier League lead over Tottenham has been diminishing lately, so they'll be eager to reinstate it in an interesting tie against Southampton.

The Saints are coming off a difficult game against Manchester City which they lost 3-0.

In that game, Southampton never looked competitive, so you'd have to worry about them against the best side in the league this season.

Understandably, the Blues go into this match-up as 2/5 favorites, while Southampton are priced at 13/2 to cause a massive upset and beat Antonio Conte's team at home. The draw is priced at 7/2.

The Saints did manage to get a victory over Chelsea last season with a 3-1 win at Stamford Bridge. Two out of the three goalscorers are no longer with the South coast side - the remaining one being Steven Davis.

The Northern Irish international was on the score sheet that day and he is priced at 25/1 to open the scoring this time around.

However, anybody who follows football knows that this Chelsea team is a completely different proposition than last year's side too. Still, sometimes lightning does strike twice, so if you are interested in backing this score, it is available at 66/1.

The last time the two teams met, it finished 2-0 to Chelsea and if you're wondering what our opinion is, we think a rehash of this scoreline is incredibly likely. If you agree with us, you can pick 2-0 to The Blues at a price of 6/1.

That day, the formidable duo of Eden Hazard and Diego Costa were on the score sheet for Chelsea. The pair are 4/1 and 3/1 to score the first goal on Tuesday night. If you'd prefer to back them in the anytime scorer markets, they are 8/11 and 11/10 respectively.

Chelsea's last league outing was a poor 2-0 defeat against Manchester United. Another performance like that would open the door for Spurs to close the gap even further in the race for the title.

Tottenham are currently four points behind Chelsea and face Crystal Palace the following day. They will be hoping that a win in that all-London derby will leave just a point between the sides.

However, we wouldn't bet on it. Our money is on The Blues to push Southampton to one side and to win this game with relative ease.