Chelsea vs Norwich Preview

If Chelsea don’t win the Premier League this season, they can at least take some confidence from the fact that they have seen off the other two title contenders both home and away this term. Indeed, Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho has already pointed this out, and should Chelsea lose the title on goal difference, look for the so-called ‘Special One’ stating that the title should be settled in England as it is in Spain, by head-to-heads before goal difference. Just because he wants the fairest possible result, of course...

Still the reality is that Chelsea are highly unlikely to finish ahead of both Manchester City and Liverpool, and their defeat of the latter is ultimately set to be a pyrrhic victory. Nonetheless, the Blues will play their last home match of the season here against Norwich perhaps sniffing an outside chance of winning the title, given that City have a tough away game at Everton this week, while Liverpool could find themselves in third place and under pressure by the time they kick-off against Crystal Palace.

This is aside from the fact that all clubs like to finish their programme of home fixtures with a powerful victory, so Chelsea will have no shortage of motivation ahead of this match with the Canaries, regardless of the fact that they are unlikely to finish the season with a domestic trophy in their cabinet.

The evidence and recent form of both clubs does not bode well for Norwich ahead of this one. Chelsea have just won away with a heavily weakened line-up at the team who had the best home record in the Premier League, while Norwich have lost their last five Premier League games, and rather meekly for the most part as well. They go into this game at Stamford Bridge with a dismal away record, which is in fact the worst in the division, having already lost 14 times on their travels so far this campaign. And they’re travelling to the team who now have the best home record in the Premier League, and who have only ever lost once at Stamford Bridge under Jose Mourinho (albeit it was the last PL game that they played there!).

So it is incredibly tough to back Norwich in this one. I think if Delia Smith were writing this preview, she would have to conclude that Norwich’s chances are pretty slim. This really does seem to be a case of how many rather than how, and any betting really needs to be on details of how the game will turn out, given that Chelsea are priced around 1/5 to win this one.

Firstly, if you’re looking for a safe bet, the over 2.5 goals is just about backable at 1/2. However, I’m going to confound this by tipping this to be an under 2.5 game. Norwich would unquestionably take a point here, and will doubtless set up a blanket defence. It is against precisely this tactic that the Blues have struggled at times, given their nature as a counter-attacking team. I predict this could be a slightly frustrating afternoon for Chelsea, but an ultimately fruitless one for Norwich.

Safe Bet – Under 2.5 goals
Value Bet – Chelsea 2 – 0 Norwich City

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01/05/2014     © Frixo 2026