Chelsea vs Burnley prediction, odds, expert football betting tips and best bets for Premier League match – Sporting News
With just 11 matches remaining in the Premier League season, Chelsea are simply looking to break into the top half of the table as they host relegation-threatened Burnley on Saturday.
The Blues are an unattainable 14 points adrift of fifth-placed Tottenham, leaving them to watch helplessly as others snatch the European places, while Chelsea must suffer for a second straight season without continental football.
At this point in the season, Mauricio Pochettino is managing for his job, while the players know anyone and everyone could be subjected to Todd Boehly’s wheeling and dealing this summer if they fail to impress down the stretch.
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Burnley, meanwhile, have their Premier League lives at stake. A victory over Brentford before the international break will provide hope, but they still sit five points shy of safety in 19th. That’s far from a hopeless fight, but it means they must secure multiple upset results to climb higher, and Vincent Kompany will have very few options to fall back on.
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While Burnley showed signs of life against a vulnerable and faltering Brentford last time out, they will have few answers for the overwhelming Chelsea attack. The Blues’ worst enemy has been themselves this season, failing to finish off chances while conceding on horrific errors at the back, but against a Burnley side with very few attacking options, the hosts shouldn’t be troubled much in this game.
Unfortunately, the market for this match is largely skewed towards the likelihood of goals, so the opportunities on both the over and both teams to score are minimal. However, backing both sides to score along with a Chelsea win provides a decent return.
The difficulty here is expecting Burnley to score, but there’s plenty of reason to believe they can do their part. The Clarets managed a goal against Chelsea last time they met, and the Blues have kept just two Premier League clean sheets since the start of November. It’s not that Chelsea can’t defend — they largely do well to smother opposition chances — but they are horribly prone to both switching off or lapses in judgement.
Burnley, meanwhile, have climbed themselves out of an awful attacking slump, having gone three straight without a goal in February before bagging two in each of their last two games. It’s a blow that David Datro Fofana, who scored in both their recent games, will have to sit while ineligible to face his parent club, but Jay Rodriguez has been prolific when given the rare chance to start.
It is truly baffling how Mykhailo Mudryk lost his place in the Chelsea lineup just as he was starting to find his form in the Premier League. The Ukrainian had three goal contributions in five starts through December, and then was promptly sat on the bench by Mauricio Pochettino.
Mudryk showed his exceptional quality for Ukraine by scoring two enormous goals in each of the national team’s Euro qualifiers this past international break en route to securing a spot in Germany this summer. Another place on Chelsea’s bench would be a cruel reward for his solid form.
The biggest problem for Mudryk this season has been finishing, but it’s an issue that has plagued the entire Chelsea squad outside of the red-hot Cole Palmer, and with the England international struggling for fitness, Mudryk could be handed a big chance here against a leaky Burnley back line.
U.S. rights-holders NBC Sports have decided to stream this Saturday match exclusively on Peacock.
In Canada, the match will be available to stream exclusively on Fubo Canada, where every match across the entirety of the 2023/24 Premier League season can be accessed.
In the UK, this match will not be televised as it is part of the 3 p.m. Saturday afternoon blackout.
Kyle Bonn is a soccer content producer for The Sporting News.
