CHELSEA v VALENCIA
Football : England : Premier League
Tuesday, December 6th, 2011, 7:45PM GMT

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PREVIEW

Chelsea bounced back with a 3-0 win away at Newcastle, which is impressive because only mighty Manchester City have managed to beat Newcastle so far. Chelsea have been on a truly awful run, losing 3 of their last 4 matches at Stamford Bridge.

That awful run also saw Chelsea draw at Genk and then surrender a 1 goal lead to Leverkusen to lose. The result is that Chelsea now have to win this match, or bow out of the competition at the group stage for the first time in 9 years. Villas Boas has his work cut out for him, because the opponents, Valencia, are in form.

Valencia are on a cracking run coming into this, winning 7 of their last 8 matches in all competitions. The only loss came against Real Madrid, but the 2-3 result shows even there they were competitive and didn't go down without a fight. That goal scoring run will help against a Chelsea side that has given up 9 goals in it's last 4 home matches.

Compare this to Chelseas last 8 games, which sees them beaten 4 times with just 3 wins. Terry, Lampard, Drogba and Torres (heh) need to have a huge game here to score the goals that will get them through, but Valencia don't come here without motivation of their own. Valencia need to win here or come away with a score draw in order to progress, so the motivation to net at least once is very high.

Liverpool were able to score 4 goals here recently in 2 games, and Arsenal were able to thump in 5 goals. A good offence will certainly be able to get goals here against a Chelsea defence that looks far from solid, and anything but confident. Valencia has one such offence, and it's spearheaded by a very dangerous striker in Roberto Soldado.

BETTING VERDICT

I think Chelsea will score, but the final result is something I am not going to speculate on. The desperation Chelsea face might well see them hit on the break, meaning a bet on Valencia at huge odds smacks of value.

Soldado looks a great bet to score here as he netted both goals against Real Madrid in that recent 2-3 loss, and got a hattrick against Genk when Valencia won 7-0.

The Statistics :

The Pick :

Roberto Soldado to score

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Take Roberto Soldado to score @ 2.75 (Bet365)

Also consider:
Valencia to win @ 5.44 (Pinnacle)