On Saturday, March 4, the match of the 26th round of the English Football Championship between Chelsea and Leeds will take place. The fight will take place at Stamford Bridge in London. The starting whistle of English referee Michael Oliver will sound at 17:00 Kyiv time.
Chelsea
What to say about Chelsea? The team is bad. If you do not win at Southampton, then is it worth being sure of a victory over Leeds? Interestingly, Leeds recently beat the Saints 2-0 at home. The Peacocks are also underdogs in the Premier League, so the Blues are still the favorites in this upcoming meeting. The Londoners have 3 defeats in a row and only one win in 11 matches. The team is in 10th position in the Premier League table with 31 points after 24 rounds. Chelsea were knocked out of the FA Cup and the English League Cup, lost the first leg of the 1/8 finals of the Champions League to Borussia D, Potter should leave the team soon, a lot of injured players … In general, everything is bad, as mentioned above, but perhaps the victory will give the “pensioners” at least some confidence.
By the way, back to the Chelsea infirmary. Azpilicueta, Broy, Kante, Mount, Pulisic and Silva will not help the team against Leeds. It is generally unclear what will happen with the defense, but with the attack we should expect a full match from the Ukrainian winger Mikhail Mudrik. In general, for Mudrik this is a great chance to prove himself and not be a “007 agent” (0 goals, 0 passes, 7 matches). It is this match that will be the seventh for Mikhail in the Chelsea shirt.
Leeds
Leeds have appointed a new manager, Javi Gracia. With the Spanish mentor, the team played one match, which they lost 2-0 to Fulham in the FA Cup. In general, the team will have better recent results than Chelsea. The Peacocks have won at least 3 games in their last 11 matches and have not lost 3 in a row. We can say that Leeds had weaker rivals, but they don’t have a multimillion-dollar squad either.
The team has been eliminated from the FA Cup, is in 17th place in the FA Cup and is close to the relegation zone. With top clubs, Leeds plays well. In the last four matches with the leaders of the Premier League, the team showed a good result: a 2-2 draw with Manchester United, 0-0 with Newcastle, 1-3 with Man City and 3-4 with Tottenham. And with Chelsea, they played well in the third round of the 2022/23 Premier League season – they beat the Pensioners 3-0.
Estimated compositions
“Chelsea”: Kepa – James, Cucurella, Coulibaly, Badiashile – Fernandez, Gallagher, Mudrik – Havertz, Sterling, Felix
“Leeds”: Mellier – Firpo, Ayling, Weber, Cooper – Adams, McKenny – Gnonto, Harrison, Summerville – Bamford
Forecast
Chelsea have a big decline in the game and it is unlikely that anything will change if the “retirees” are led by Graham Potter. Our bet will be +1 handicap on Leeds with odds of 1.76.
March 4, Saturday
“Chelsea” – “Leeds”
London. Stamford Bridge. 17:00 Live TV broadcast – Setanta Sports
Arbitrator: Michael Oliver (England) Forecast Aroged – 1:1
