25 Nov 2020
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Whereas these two played out a tense, goalless stalemate in the reverse fixture, both can relax a little here with group supremacy the only thing at stake.
Krasnodar and Rennes each sit nine points adrift, with Chelsea and Sevilla tied on 10 points, but Frank Lampard’s men will stay top with a point ahead of the final round of fixtures.
Although both managers may elect to switch things around a bit given qualification is assured, Lampard will want to ensure first place and has a fully fit squad, so there won’t be wholesale changes to his line-up.
Julen Lopetegui is without goalkeeper Yassine Bounou, wingers Suso and Oussama Idrissi, as well as back-up striker Carlos Fernandez, but he should name a fairly strong side too as his team looks to keep momentum.
Lampard clearly learnt a thing or two under Jose Mourinho as a player and so perhaps it’s no surprise that their top of the table meeting on Sunday failed to ignite.
Although it ended a sequence of six straight victories, during which time Chelsea bagged 18 goals, it still leaves them unbeaten in 11 outings since the start of October.
The Blues’ defensive record last term left a lot to be desired, with the 54 league goals they shipped the worst amongst the top half of the table. However, the summer signings of Ben Chillwell, Thiago Silva and Edouard Mendy have improved their resolve.
They’ve now conceded just twice across their past nine appearances, with the partnership between the vastly experienced Silva and Kurt Zouma looing ever more solid, though Antonio Rudiger will likely come in to give one of those two a rest here.
Sevilla approach this fixture in good form as well with five victories on the trot. However, it’s worth noting that they’ve enjoyed a kind fixture list of late, with a pair of encounters against leaky Russian outfit Krasnodar and tussles with bottom-six outfits Osasuna, Celta Vigo and Huesca in La Liga.
They’ve actually conceded at least twice in five of their past six matches, despite the relatively weak opposition, so we’d expect Chelsea to pick up something from this game.
Sevilla And Chelsea To Draw
Chelsea haven’t won four Champions League matches in a row since 2012 when they lifted the trophy, but by the same token it’s been 11 years since Sevilla topped a group at this level.
The Spanish side have enjoyed tremendous success in the Europa League, but they’ve never gone unbeaten across their first five group stage matches in Europe’s top tier before.
Something has to give, but Chelsea’s 11-game unbeaten run and fully fit squad suggests they should stand the better chance of picking up the points.
However, Sevilla haven’t tasted defeat in their last seven meetings with English sides (W3-D4), while the Blues have only tasted victory in one of their past 10 against Spanish sides (W1-D5-L3).
The first seven of those were against either Barcelona or Atletico Madrid however, as they took four points from Valencia in last season’s group stages.
Sevilla rarely lose at home, doing so on just three occasions since the start of last season as they drew hosting the likes of Barcelona and Atletico last term, while going down 1-0 to Real Madrid.
They’re yet to face any of those sides at the Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan this season, while Chelsea have drawn encounters with Spurs (twice), Man Utd and Sevilla themselves in the current campaign, as their other top test saw them beaten by Liverpool after going down to 10 men. With that in mind, the draw feels like an inevitable outcome here.
Sevilla And Chelsea To Draw At 12/5
SEVILLA V CHELSEA ODDS AVAILABLE HERE
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ODDS ARE CORRECT AS OF 01/12/2020 HOWEVER ARE SUBJECT TO FLUCTUATIONS
