Chelsea out to 8/1 to win Premier League after home defeat
Published:Chelsea do not have long to settle on a formation that will allow Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres to work in tandem if they want to remain in contention for the Premier League title.
With Manchester United losing at Wolves, Chelsea had the chance to reduce their arrears to seven points in their home clash with Liverpool.
However, despite picking an attacking line-up that included Torres, Drogba and Nicolas Anelka, they failed to even score against Liverpool and Chelsea’s betting odds are now 8/1 to win the Premier League this season.
Manager Carlo Ancelotti reverted from his orthodox 433 formation and instead named Drogba and Torres as two strikers, with Nicolas Anelka playing in an advanced midfield role.
This meant that Frank Lampard was also shunted backwards into a more deeper role and Chelsea struggled to regain the fluency that they had begun to show in their improved performances of recent weeks.
Chelsea do not have long to work on a formation before their Premier League season could effectively be over as they travel to Fulham next before their crunch home game with Manchester United.
It is likely that Ancelotti will persevere with two strikers for at least one more game, but he may then be forced to drop one of his three forwards or try to implement them all into the tried and tested 433 system.
Anelka has been playing on the right side of this three-pronged attack for much of the season anyway, so it could work if either Torres or Drogba manage to do a similar job on the other flank.
Chelsea’s defeat has also had a positive bearing on Manchester United’s odds to win the Premier League as they have been trimmed back into 8/13.
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