Chelsea hosts Leicester City in round 2 of English Premier League. The match will be played on Sunday, August 18th at Stamford Bridge (London)
Chelsea failed in a match with Manchester United. Truth be told, only in terms of the result. First, let’s look at the lineups: Lampard chose the predictable 4-2-3-1 scheme, where there were surprises, but they were not for those who closely followed Chelsea (Kante did not play, as he was recovering from an injury; Lampard said that he wouldn’t force his return). The head coach of the Blues singled out the excellent form of Mount (he played under the forward) and Barkley (played the left winger), which explained the rather bold decision in terms of the squad. The match can be divided into two stages: in the first 45-60 minutes, Chelsea owned the initiative and created many attempts, while Solskajer decided to bet on counterattacks; in the final half an hour, Chelsea opened too much and lost balance, which Manchester United took advantage of thanks to its counterattacks. My thoughts were confirmed in an after-match interview with Ole Gunnar Solskajer: “As for the quality of the game, the second half was very good - it is a big plus. But we were lucky in the first half: the opponent pressed us and created moments. Then we changed something and calmed down - the second half was good." Of course, Chelsea lost deservedly, and the final stage of the match showed that Manchester United is significantly stronger, but “significantly stronger” and “a hammering defeat” are two different things. It is also confirmed by xG statistics: Manchester United won 2.36-1.34 - obviously not for a 4:0 score.
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Leicester City is waiting for a very exciting season under the management of Brendan Rogers - now you can talk about it quite boldly. In the first round, Leicester met another very cool team - Wolverhampton. The styles of the teams differ very much - Leicester likes possessing the ball, while the team is quite flexible both in terms of schemes and terms of style - sometimes the attack can be simplified because Vardi loves long balls very much. Wolverhampton and Nuno Espirito Santo are geniuses in positional defense; it can be verified by xGA/Sh - in their last season, this indicator was the smallest in the top 5 European leagues. In that game, besides possession, Leicester has little to distinguish - the match went according to the scenario of the Wolves, which defended excellently.
Both teams play in an attacking style: Chelsea was not afraid to take the lead in an away match against Manchester United, and Leicester surpassed Wolverhampton in possession, although this fact can be recorded as an asset to Leicester, it cannot be called a failure of Wolverhampton. I consider this match to be one of the main in the next round of the top 5 European championships because both teams love to play what many call attacking football. As a rule, a lot of created attempts lead to the fact that the teams score. Both teams are very good in this component of the game, so my bet is Both to score: yes.
Prediction for the match: Both teams to score – yes
