Is the pressure beginning to be too much for Atletico Madrid? They go into this Champions League game at home to Chelsea having won just one of their last four games.
Atletico have had a great season so far but their lead at the top of La Liga is down to three points. They still have a game in hand but of late have been failing to beat teams they should be getting wins against. Atletico only drew with Celta Vigo at home and then earned just a point in two games against Levante.
The 2-0 home loss to Levante ended a run of scoring in 13 consecutive games. It was also their first home loss since Barcelona beat them in December 2019. With the Champions League making its return, this isn’t the best of times to have poor form.
Atletico finished second in their Champions League group. Not surprising considered their main opposition was Bayern Munich. They lost 4-0 away to the Germans and drew 1-1 at home. Munich had already qualified so it was a weakened line-up for them.
The Spanish side only beat one of the teams in the group. They had home and away wins over Red Bull Salzburg and drew their two matches against Lokomotiv Moscow. That’s not the most impressive of performances. Improvement is needed if they are to justify odds of 17/10 at Bet365 on them beating Chelsea.
Atletico reached two Champions League finals in 2014 and 2016, then reached the last four in 2017. The best they have managed since then was a last eight appearance in the 2019/20 season, losing to RB Leipzig in a one-off tie. A big disappointment considering they’d beaten Liverpool in the last sixteen. They did win the Europa League in 2018, their third success in that tournament and they beat Arsenal in the last four.
Home form in the Champions League for Atletico Madrid has seen them go without defeat since 2017. It just happened to be Chelsea who beat them with a last minute goal from Batshuayi. They’d love to repeat that result in this game. It’s 9/5 at Paddy Power that they can beat Atletico.
Chelsea are now fifth in the Premier League, two points behind West Ham. There’s been some improvement since the arrival of Thomas Tuchel but it’s still his honeymoon period. It hasn’t been the toughest of fixture lists and they could only draw at Southampton on Saturday.
The Blues are unbeaten in their last eight league and cup games. This is a bit tougher than facing the likes of Luton Town, Barnsley, Sheffield United and Newcastle United.
They had few problems in the group stages of the Champions League winning their group with Sevilla in second. Chelsea went to Spain and beat Sevilla (fourth in La Liga) 4-0. They won all three of their away group matches but were held to home draws by Sevilla and Krasnodar.
Chelsea are still not firing on all cylinders. Their last four away league and cup games have produced three wins and a draw. However, they have only scored five goals and three of those were penalties. You can get 6/1 at Bet365 on Chelsea scoring a penalty in this game.
Timo Werner is still struggling in front of goal and he’s 5/2 at Bet365 to score one in this match. They have to be wary of the fact that Atletico won at Anfield last season and drew at Stamford Bridge four years ago.
A bet on under 2.5 goals in this match looks a good one to make. It’s 8/5 at Bet365 on that happening here. That’s come up in five of the last six Chelsea away games. Eight of the last ten Atletico home games in this competition have had under 2.5 goals scored in them.
