Chelsea vs Luton prediction: ENGLAND: Premier League betting tips on match 2023-08-24 19:00.
The social media football trolls were sent into raptures after Chelsea’s 3-1 defeat to a ten-man West Ham at the weekend with both of their €100m+ players, Enzo Fernández and Moisés Caicedo, missing a penalty and conceding another between them. Just five wins in 31 Premier League (PL) games (D11, L15) doesn’t seem like a great return on investment after Todd Boehly’s near billion-dollar revamp.
Of course, Chelsea are a work in progress and boss Mauricio Pochettino’s call to “believe in the process” after their latest defeat mirrored that sentiment. Even so, Chelsea are now winless in their opening two PL rounds for only the second time since they did so in 2015/16, and there’s no guarantee they’ll get the better of newly promoted Luton Town, after failing to win four of their six games against league newbies last term (W2, D3, L1).
Rob Edwards’ Luton have enjoyed an extra week to lick their wounds after their baptism of fire in their 4-1 opening day defeat to Brighton due to ongoing work to bring Kenilworth Road up to PL standard. While there is no shame in being humbled by the Seagulls, there is a real worry that the Hatters could be swept away by most teams this season, especially with the lion’s share of their incomings this summer plying their trade in the EFL last season.
The addition of goalkeeper Tim Krul, who Edwards described as a “proper bloke, who has an air of confidence”, at the very least gives them some much-needed PL experience between the sticks. If they’re to begin what would be arguably the greatest survival story in PL history here, they’ll have to tighten it up at the back after conceding six goals across the only two H2Hs in this century, both of which came in the FA Cup since 2021.
Players to watch: Instead of showing the kind of form which saw him net nine times across his last eight La Liga appearances, Chelsea’s Nicolas Jackson has only a couple of yellow cards to show for his two PL appearances to date. Luton’s Ross Barkley will face his old club for the first time since leaving, yet he did manage four assists in nine meetings with them as an Everton player.
Hot stat: Only the three relegated sides and Everton had a lower win rate as pre-match PL favourites than Chelsea’s 38% last season (W11, D9, L9).