Evening. Chelsea might have had a so-so start to their defence of the Premier League title but they look right at home in the Champions League. They walloped Qarabag 6-0 at Stamford Bridge and they nabbed all three points away at last year’s runners-up, Atlético Madrid, thanks to a gold-standard European performance that was given added polish by Eden Hazard’s brilliance. They have Roma to contend with tonight, whose run of five wins was halted by Napoli at the weekend in the tightest of games that they lost 1-0. Chelsea, meanwhile, lost to Crystal Palace – yes Crystal Palace! – last Saturday. Not the best way to build confidence for this game.
Antonio Conte has been bemoaning how thin his Chelsea squad is too, which is a bit rich when you have around 30 players scattered around Europe on loan - but maybe that’s not his doing. Injuries to Victor Moses and N’Golo Kanté mean Conte may throw David Luiz into midfield which, and let’s be honest, should be loads of fun.
Roma’s manager, Eusebio Di Francesco, has got a few injury problems of his own but the combustible and creative Radja Nainggolan is fit and will likely be the man David Luiz will have to keep in check when he isn’t pinging balls around like a latterday Franz Beckenbauer. La Repubblica described Nainggolan as “a Gattuso who scores goals” although he’s only scored one this season, but that’s one more than Gattusso usually got in a term. It’s former Manchester City super-sub Edin Dzeko who more often than not scores Roma’s goals. He’s got 10 of them in 13 appearances this season. But Chelsea have their own prolific striker fit again. Álvaro Morata is available again after recovering from a thigh injury.
My prediction: Chelsea 2-2 Roma
While we wait for the team news read this entertaining interview with Dzeko:
SOURCE : GUARDIAN SPORTS posted by CAMPUS94
Hello, my name is Jack Sparrow. I'm a 50 year old self-employed Pirate from the Caribbean.
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