Chelsea take on the visitors Ajax in the round 3 match of UEFA Champions League group stage. The match will be played on Wednesday, October 22nd at
Chelsea, after a busy season in which they fought to return to the Premier League’s top quartet and won the Europa Conference League, spent half the summer in a full-blown tournament. In the end they added the Club World Cup title as well, but the schedule — with matches twice a week — and, in Maresca’s view, have led to a full-blown outbreak of injuries in the autumn. It is no surprise that with such personnel issues, including in defence, failures on the pitch have been frequent. They also began the Champions League with a loss in Munich to Bayern Munich, compounded by major mistakes at their own goal. However, they secured three points against Benfica, albeit via an own goal. On the plus side, their recovery suggests the squad has resilience and the home form remains a key asset. On the downside, the pattern of dropping points unexpectedly continues to threaten their ambitions.
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Ajax, it seems, have gone off course again. The Red-Whites appeared to receive a gift from a rival last season by emerging in first place in the Eredivisie, but instead of seeing the job through they slipped — the title stayed in Eindhoven and their coach resigned. Appointing a new manager did not solve things: in each second round they drop points, often through draws, and allow rivals like Feyenoord to pull away. In the Champions League the Dutch club are simply failing: first they offered no response at home to goals by Inter, and then even a more modest Marseille inflicted a 4-0 rout at the Velodrome. Their current form reeks of indecision and lack of momentum when it matters. Even though they have talent and a storied history, their recent results suggest they are underperforming in big matches and have not yet found the consistency required at the highest level.
In 2019 the English side managed to win 1-0 away, but then at home recorded a spectacular 4-4 draw with the Dutch representative. The Blues should win at home against this opponent, and likely by more than a minimal margin — we’re betting on them with a handicap of “-1.5 goals.”
Prediction for the match: Chelsea to win with -1.5 handicap.
