Premier League Betting: Chelsea v Portsmouth

Best Bookies, Betting, Bookmakers, Fixed Odds, Football, Tipsters | selectabet | August 17, 2008 at 8:57 am

Chelsea v Portsmouth - Live on Sky Sports 1. Kick Off 1.30pm

The Phil Scolari era kicks off today at Stamford Bridge as Chelsea host the FA Cup holders, Portsmouth in a game that’s live on Sky Sports 1.

With injuries to Drogba and Shevchenko and with Kalou at the Olypmics, the Blues will be going in with Anelka playing the lone striker role up front. Deco will make his Premier League debut and it will be interesting to see how Scolari accommodates him in a midfield along with Lampard and Ballack.

Pompey boss Harry Redknapp still feels he’s 3 players short of where he wants to be. But he’ll pair Defoe and Crouch up front for the first time in the Premier League as they try to win at Chelsea for the first time in 53 years. Elsewhere he’s lost the likes of Muntari and Mendes from his midfield without being able to replace them with the same quality and it’ll be tough going against the quality the Blues have in that department.

On the betting front it looks like Chelsea will extend their phenomenal 82 match unbeaten home record and get the season off to a winning start. Paddy Power offer the biggest price at 4/11 on a home win and that’s a license to print money if you ask me. Anyone brave enough – or daft enough – to back Pompey can have upto 11/1 at Bet Direct, Boylesports or Stan James.

But the best value looks to be in the Over / Under market. I know it’s a new season but if you look at how last term finished for these two sides I wouldn’t expect too many goals in this one. In Chelsea’s last 10 games of season 2007/08 only one game finished with more than 2 goals. Those 10 games accumulated just 20 goals. Portsmouth’s last 10 competitive games yielded even less goals – just 11, with Pompey only scoring 4 of them. Chelsea’s lack of striking options also suggests that goals might be a bit difficult to come by against a sturdy Portsmouth defence.

Under 2.5 goals isn’t a bad price either with Canbet and Ladbrokes both going 43/50. Get on it.