Forget 1-0 Arsenal, 2-1 Chelsea becoming final day ritual
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It is becoming something of a ritual for Chelsea supporters to celebrate a 2-1 victory on the final day of a Premier League season and this can be the result again when a Sunderland side with nothing to play for arrive at Stamford Bridge to close out the 2014/15 campaign.
In each of the last three seasons Chelsea have ended with a 2-1 triumph, beating relegated Cardiff 12 months ago and following consecutive home victories over Blackburn and Everton respectively.
Based on this history and the fact that the last two meetings between this pair at Stamford Bridge have finished 2-1 to one of the sides, 8/1 is a monster price on Chelsea securing the three points by this margin.
Other factors that lend further weight to this case is that Jose Mourinho’s men have netted exactly twice in two thirds of their home matches with bottom-half opposition this season and have kept a clean sheet in just one of their last four fixtures.
Where the goals will be supplied from is not so obvious to uncover, with Cesc Fabregas banned for humorously kicking the ball at Chris Brunt in the defeat to West Brom and Eden Hazard a major doubt because of emergency dental work on three wisdom teeth.
Given that Oscar is also injured, there is an obvious gap in the line-up as to who Mourinho will call upon to be the main source of creativity.
He could opt to start two in attack and partner Diego Costa with Loic Remy, although the more likely scenario is that the Frenchman will start to the right of a front three and Willian will move into the central playmaking role.
Willian may have only scored twice in the Premier League this season, but it is worth noting that he has had exactly the same number of goal attempts as Tottenham’s Nacer Chadli, who has troubled the scorers on 11 occasions.
This could be the game for the Brazilian to improve upon his shoddy scoring record, especially considering a probable change in position and 10/1 is a big price that he breaks the deadlock.
As for the banker bet, Sunderland have lost on the final day of the last three seasons and now that their Premier League safety is secure, they could play with greater freedom than has been recently seen against Tottenham and Arsenal.
Chelsea are actually fairly priced at 1/3 to simply win the game to warm their supporters up before lifting the Premier League trophy.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
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