Champions League

2022-09-14 - Chelsea vs Salzburg

A Sports Betting Pick by Auls

Chelsea v Salzburg
Football: UEFA Champions League
Wednesday 14th September 2022 - Kick Off 8pm
This game is live on TV

Chelsea

It has been an emotional week for the whole of the United Kingdom, but Graham Potter will be focusing on his own upheaval. He accepted the role as the new manager of Chelsea and Potter will have had a few more days with his players as he prepares to manage the team in the Champions League for the first time.

The board and new owners will be hoping Graham Potter can make an immediate impact at Stamford Bridge as they look to get their Champions League ambitions back on track. The defeat at Dinamo Zagreb on Match Day 1 proved to be Thomas Tuchel's final match in charge of Chelsea, but another could be difficult to overcome. The Blues had won 5 in a row at Stamford Bridge in the Champions League, but they were beaten by Real Madrid in their last fixture.

Chelsea had been struggling for results before the decision to Sack Thomas Tuchel, but they have largely remained a tough home team. They have won 3 of their last 4 at Stamford Bridge going back to last season and Chelsea have scored at two goals in each of those 4 games played.

N'Golo Kante is expected back in early October, while Graham Potter's first team selection will be of interest to many. The expectation is that he will use the three at the back formation of his predecessor having had success with that system at Brighton.

Salzburg

There are always one or two of the Champions League Groups that look to be considerably weaker than others and last season Salzburg took part in one of those. They made it through to the Last 16 from a section that contained Sevilla, Lille and Wolfsburg, but this time around the challenge looks much tougher for Salzburg with both Chelsea and Italian Champions Milan to overcome.

The 1-1 home draw with Milan may be seen as a positive result, but backing that up will be far from easy for Salzburg as they arrive in West London for Match Day 2. If you remove the Qualifying Rounds of European competitions, Salzburg have lost 6 of their last 8 away European ties. Last season Salzburg were beaten in 3 of 4 away Champions League games from the Group Stage through to the Last 16.

Salzburg are the dominant team in Austria and they are back on top of the Bundesliga, while they are unbeaten in 8 games in all competitions and have won 7 of those fixtures. The side have won 9 of their last 11 away games in all competitions and the exceptions have seen Salzburg lose at Sturm Graz each time.

Injuries are piling up for Salzburg and they will be keen to get into the international break to try and get some of their issues resolved.

Head to Head

This is the first time Chelsea and Salzburg are meeting in a competitive fixture.

Prediction

Premier League postponements since the passing of The Queen have affected Chelsea and a couple of other clubs more than most and this is the last game the club will play before October.

Games against Fulham and Liverpool will have to be rearranged for after the World Cup, but the extra preparation time may not be a bad thing for a club with a new manager. Graham Potter took over the day before Queen Elizabeth II passed away and he will have spent a lot of time on the training ground with a new group of players having arrived from Brighton.

It will be a challenge for Graham Potter to get his methods across to players having not managed at this level, but there is clearly a quality to his work. If the players buy in, Chelsea could turn their season around and I think it will help that the players will be used to the system that Potter is likely to employ.

Ultimately too many have underperformed at the start of the season and that has proved costly for Thomas Tuchel, but you cannot ignore the quality that is in the squad. I expect the time off since the disappointing 1-0 loss at Dinamo Zagreb to have helped and Chelsea may be hosting Salzburg at the right time.

The Austrian Champions made the Last 16 last season in the Champions League and they have earned a 1-1 home draw with Milan in this Group, but injuries are piling up. It looks to have left Salzburg short of the quality they may need, while the club are not the best travellers in European competition.

Salzburg were not blown away in the Group Stage, but Bayern Munich thumped them 7-1 in the Last 16. A solid system that keeps the players churning through the club makes Salzburg dangerous as they will know exactly what is expected of them, while facing a Chelsea team learning to listen to a new voice in the dressing room.

However, those injuries in the squad are an issue and I think Chelsea will respond to the poor result in the Croatian Capital to win this one by a couple of goals on the night.

The Statistics :

CHELSEA LAST SIX HOME FORM
	DATE	RESULT		OPPOSITION
	2022-04-06	L	1-3	H v Real_Madrid
	2022-02-22	W	2-0	H v Lille
	2021-11-23	W	4-0	H v Juventus
	2021-10-20	W	4-0	H v Malmo
	2021-09-14	W	1-0	H v Zenit_St_Petersburg
	2021-05-05	W	2-0	H v Real_Madrid

SALZBURG LAST SIX AWAY FORM
	DATE	RESULT		OPPOSITION
	2022-03-08	L	7-1	A v Bayern_Munchen
	2021-11-23	L	1-0	A v Lille
	2021-11-02	L	2-1	A v Wolfsburg
	2021-09-14	D	1-1	A v Seville
	2021-08-25	W	1-2	A v Brondby
	2020-12-01	W	1-3	A v Lokomotiv_Moscow