Chelsea must be backed to go unbeaten at home this season

Chelsea endured two defeats on home soil last term and currently share three-way favouritism with the Manchester clubs as to who will accumulate the most points in front of their own fans in the Premier League this season.

A price of 21/10 says no club will better the Blues’ home record this term and that, compared to everything else on offer in this field, simply must be backed for one reason and one reason alone: they’ve got Jose Mourinho in charge once more.

Bettering the Special One on his own patch is rare in the extreme and the 4/1 Ladbrokes are offering for his Chelsea side to remain unbeaten in all 19 Premier League games played at Stamford Bridge this season is even more punt-worthy.

Over the previous 11 seasons only three teams have managed to win an away game when Mourinho was stationed in the home dug out. Sporting Gijon, Zaragoza and Barcelona make up this bubble-bursting trinity and, obviously, recorded them against his Real Madrid team.

Two of these anomalies cropped up in the first season of his three-year Bernabeu tenure and his third came in the second, meaning his final year in Spain was an undefeated one.

This was the eighth season of the last 11 in which he never lost a home game, though he did spend the majority of the 2007/08 campaign unemployed following his acrimonious Chelsea departure.

This monstrous run of unbeaten home games included him breaking the Premier League record of 64-games without defeat on home soil and he’s likely to pick up where he left off when his side entertain Hull in the opening match of this season.

After formulating a near-infallible ploy to prevent home league losses, it seems backing the Portuguese to usher his side through a fourth full Premier League season without getting beat at home at such long odds is a bona fide no-brainer for anyone looking for a worthwhile long-term punt.

All odds and markets accurate as of publication’s time and date