The Big Preview - Chelsea v Norwich City

Article by e-Chelsea Correspondent Robert Wake

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Stamford Bridge

Sunday 04 May 2014

History

Chelsea won the reverse fixture in early October. Oscar gave The Blues an early lead, but that was cancelled out by Anthony Pilkington midway through the second half. Late goals from Eden Hazard and Willian secured the points for the visitors. Chelsea also won the corresponding fixture last season, recording a 4-1 victory with goals from Fernando Torres, Frank Lampard, Hazard and Branislav Ivanovic, after Grant Holt had given Norwich an early lead. The Blues recorded their biggest victory (4-0) against The Canaries in Jose Mourinho’s first season in charge in 2004-05. Chelsea are unbeaten against The Canaries in the last ten meetings (eight wins, two draws).

Current Form

Chelsea have lost consecutive games at Stamford Bridge to Sunderland and Atletico Madrid, but still hold the best home record in the Premier League this season, having won 15 of 18 home fixtures. The Canaries have lost eight on the bounce on their travels, and Neil Adams has lost all three games since taking over from Chris Hughton.

Team News

Mourinho is again likely to rotate the squad following another midweek outing. Ramires serves the second of his four match suspension and will be unavailable. Petr Cech is unlikely to be risked, while both John Terry and Oscar are nursing injuries. Nemanja Matic and Mohamed Salah, both ineligible in midweek are likely to feature. Norwich are likely to be without Anthony Pilkington, while Joseph Yobo is also a doubt. The referee is Neil Swarbrick, who also took charge of our meeting at Carrow Road.

Prediction

Chelsea will want to bounce back from successive home defeats with a victory here. The Blues intensity may depend on the outcome of Manchester City’s game at Everton on Saturday. Should City fail to take maximum points, Chelsea will want to apply pressure on Liverpool who play at Crystal Palace on Monday night. Though it would take a strange combination of results for Chelsea to win the title from here, stranger things have happened, and Mourinho would be sure to ramp up the mind games ahead of the final weekend should Chelsea still be in a position to win it after this weekend’s fixtures. For their part, Norwich appear to be in free fall, but will be encouraged by Sunderland’s surprise victory a fortnight ago, but will probably need to win both their remaining games to have a chance of surviving the drop. I’m taking The Blues to return to winning ways with a comfortable victory on Sunday.

Chelsea 3-0 Norwich City

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