Chelsea vs Sheffield United 31/08/19

31 August 2019

Chelsea will try to post their second straight Premier League (PL) win this weekend when they take on Sheffield United at Stamford Bridge.

The hosts have endured a turbulent start to the new season, losing 4-0 to Manchester United on the road in the PL curtain-raiser before being held to a 1-1 home draw by Leicester City. However, the Blues go into this fixture off the back of a 3-2 away win over Norwich City, which was their second win in their last eight PL outings (W2, D4, L2). Still, the Pensioners have not lost a single PL home game since the turn of the year (W6, D4). While three of those stalemates saw both teams score, five of Chelsea’s victories in that sequence have witnessed them beat their rivals to nil. The London giants have won both of their PL H2Hs with Sheffield in the 21^st century, scoring over 1.5 match goals in both of those fixtures while preventing the returnees from scoring on both occasions.

Meanwhile, the visitors have a little bit of everything at the beginning of the new season (W1, D1, L1), with two of those games featuring under 2.5 goals. Although they’ve failed to pick up a win in their opening PL away game (a 1-1 draw with Bournemouth), the Blades have managed to stretch their unbeaten away run in all competitions to ten games (W4, D6). Although all of those four wins have come in Championship, all have seen Sheffield beat their rivals to nil, with three of those triumphs ending with the same 1-0 scoreline in Sheffield’s favor. Meanwhile, six of their draws in that period have seen both teams score with four of those games featuring goals in both halves.