The Premier League leaders will hope to continue their march to the title and cement their position in the Premier League standings as they face West Bromwich Albion at Stamford Bridge on Saturday. West Brom will be hoping to emulate their performance like last season when they were seconds away from beating Chelsea when Ramires won a dubious penalty to save Chelsea’s blushes.
The Blues have been a juggernaut in the Premier League this season and will hope to win the game like they have won all their home games in the league this season. Mourinho will be looking at breaking a record of 12 matches unbeaten since the start of the season.
With most pundits predicting a Chelsea win over West Brom, here are the 3 key battles from the game which can decide which side gets the 3 points.
Diego Costa vs. Lescott & Dawson
Diego Costa has scored 10 goals in 9 games for Chelsea at the start of the season, allaying fears not only about his scoring ability but that he can fit into the English game easily, he will be up against a West Brom side which have only won once in their last 5 games and with a defence pairing of Dawson and Lescott.
Lescott moved to West Bromwich Albion from Manchester City this season, he hasn’t really shored up the Brom defence all that much and it may seem now like a decent bit of business done by Manchester City by letting the English international go. He would need to play the game of the season with Dawson to keep this Chelsea team quiet.
Saido Berahino vs. Terry & Cahill
If Diego Costa is the goal outlet for Chelsea, West Brom have a brilliant striker of their own in Saido Berahino. Saido has been on a purple patch since last season and his brilliant performances for West Brom have earned him a call to the senior England squad.
This season as well, Berahino has done extremely well for a team which is in 13th position. Berahino has scored 7 league goals this season, which is more than the rest of his team have scored. Berahino might find it difficult to deal with the physicality of Terry and Cahill but West Brom did well last season and this could be the game where they kick start their season.
Eden Hazard vs. Stephane Sessegnon
Eden Hazard was supposed to build on last season with Chelsea but most of the creativity and goals have come from other sources, Costa and Fabregas. The Belgian hasn’t really done much to impress this season but he is full of class and can conjure up something in a flash and make a difference, West Brom will have to be very careful how they deal with him.
Sessegnon is also a player who could and should have stepped up during his playing time for Sunderland but his fluctuating form didn’t bring him that big move to a big club, rather he moved to West Bromwich Albion last season. He scored in the corresponding fixture last season and was a problem for the Chelsea team; he could cause problems this time around as well. West Brom would need all their players to be on top of their game for any chance of escaping Stamford Bridge with a positive result.