Chelsea v Fulham Betting Preview

Chelsea face Fulham on Wednesday in the Carling Cup as they look to bounce back from their defeat to Manchester United on Sunday. This is both sides first game in the competition this season but Chelsea were knocked out in the 3rd round last season to Newcastle and Fulham also suffered defeat in that round to Stoke. The Blues do have history in the cup, winning the competition 4 times as recently as 2005 and 2007, but Fulham have only ever reached the last 8.

Chelsea v Fulham Betting odds

Chelsea

Chelsea suffered an early season title blow on Sunday when they lost out 3-1 away to Manchester United in a game that included an early contender for miss of the season from striker Fernando Torres. New manager Villas-Boas will be wanting to bounce back from that defeat and may see the Carling Cup as an early chance to win some silverware. With this in mind, a 2-0 home win for Chelsea is looking like a good bet at 7.5 from Skybet. It is quite difficult to predict what sort of team Villas-Boas will pick, however it almost certainly won’t be full strength after 2 games last week and another home game against Swansea coming up this Saturday. However, Chelsea’s reserve team should still be strong enough to fend off what could be a changed Fulham side. Juan Mata has impressed since his arrival from Valencia in the summer and the midfielder is looking a good bet at 7.0 from Bet365 to open the scoring.

Fulham

Fulham relieved some of the pressure on boss martin Jol on Sunday when they battled back from 2 goals down to draw 2-2 with Manchester City. However, it has been a less than satisfactory start for the Cottagers and they currently sit 3rd bottom with just 3 points from 5 games. Manager Jol also has the Europa League to think about, so it looks likely that he will rotate his squad for this game with Chelsea. Fulham’s bad start to the season is represented in their odds for Wednesday night and the Cottagers are priced as long as 10.0 at Stan James. Bobby Zamora has scored 4 goals in all competitions this season and is most certainly the danger man for the away side. The big striker is looking a good bet at 4.5 with Skybet to score at any time during the match. Fulham have only scored 1 goal away from home this season though, and Chelsea have hardly been prolific so betting on under 2.5 goals at Skybet is looking a good choice.

Highlighted Bets
Chelsea 2-0 WIN – 7.5 Skybet
Mata first scorer – 7.0 Bet365
Fulham WIN – 10.0 Stan James
Zamora anytime scorer – 4.5 Skybet
Under 2.5 goals – 2.5 Skybet

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