Chelsea vs West Ham United Preview

August 15, 2016
By: Deke Hardman

Conte

The first round of Premier League fixtures concludes at Stamford Bridge on Monday evening as Chelsea host West Ham United.

The hosts, managed by Antonie Conte for the first time, are looking to bounce back from a disappointing 2015/16 campaign when they finished in tenth place, thirty-one points behind champions Leicester City – their lowest finish in twenty years.

Conte will hope that a lack of European football will aid their ambitions of wrestling the Premier League title back from the Foxes, who lost the opening game of their title defence to Hull City on Saturday afternoon.

Captain John Terry should have recovered from a head injury in time to be considered for selection though fellow centre-back Kurt Zouma remains out with a long-term knee injury while Mitsy Batshuayi and N’Golo Kante are in line for their debuts.

Diego Costa is favourite to open the scoring at 5.0 (4/1) with a variety of firms with Eden Hazard a 7.0 (6/1) shot with Bet Victor.

The home win is 1.57 (4/7) with several firms with the the visitors widely available at 6.5 (11/2). The draw can be backed at 4.4 (17/5) with 888 Sport.

Slaven Bilic’s side, who finished three places and twelve points above the Blues last season started their season last month, qualifying for the Europa League Play-Offs by beating Slovenian side Domzale by 4 goals to 2 on aggregate.

The Hammers have a number of players out injured with Aaron Creswell and Manuel Lanzini among those sidelined while Dimiti Payet is unlikely to play the full ninety minutes having played in the final of the European Championships last month.

New signing Andre Ayew is 13.0 (12/1) to get the first goal of the game with Paddy Power as is fellow forward Andy Carroll.

Last season’s corresponding fixture ended in a 2-2 draw – five months after West Ham ran out 2-1 winners at their last ever clash at the Boleyn Ground.

You can back both teams to score at 1.91 (10/11) with William Hill while 888 Sport offer 1.8 (4/5) for there to be at least three goals in the game.

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