St. Patrick’s Athletic vs Chelsea

13 July 2019

After playing out a 1-1 draw with Bohemians, Chelsea will head to Richmond Park to tackle St Patrick’s Athletic in their second summer friendly.

The hosts suffered a 2-0 home loss to the Swedish outfit Norrkoping in the Europa League qualifiers a few days ago, which was their second failure in the last three outings (W1, L2). The Pats’ main problem in the recent period has been the uninspiring performance in the final third that has seen them score one goal or less in nine of their previous ten games. But, a stubborn defending has compensated for weak displays in the final third, preventing their rivals from scoring over 1.5 goals per match on eight occasions across the same period. As a result, nine of the Saints’ last ten games have featured under 2.5 goals, while just four saw both teams score.

Meanwhile, the visitors travel here on a ten-game unbeaten run (W4, D6), with eight of those matches witnessing goals at both ends. Interestingly, five of those stalemates have seen both teams score, with four of them ending with the same 1-1 scoreline. The Blues are hopeful of having a fresh start under new boss Franck Lampard, who didn’t have the full squad at his disposal for the debut against Bohemians. If the Pensioners win here, it will probably see them score over 1.5 match goals considering that 18 of Chelsea’s last 19 wins saw them score at least two goals.