Chelsea (18 wins, 5 losses, 8 draws) welcomes West Ham (15-11-7) to Stamford Bridge Sunday. Kickoff is set for 9 a.m. ET. Below, we preview the Chelsea vs. West Ham odds and lines, and make our best EPL bets, picks and predictions.
Chelsea, which lost at home to Arsenal 4-2 Wednesday, needs to pick it up to keep a top-four spot and qualify for next season’s Champions League. Chelsea, winners of 9 of its last 12 overall matches, is in 3rd place on the EPL table with 62 points. Chelsea is just ahead of 4th-place Arsenal (60 points) and 5th-place Tottenham (58).
Chelsea has been led this season by its defense, which has allowed the 3rd-fewest goals in the EPL, allowing 27 goals in 31 games. F Mason Mount leads the team in scoring with 10 goals.
West Ham is led by a dynamic offense that averages 1.58 goals per game. A win here would propel West Ham to 6th on the table with as many games played as current 6th-place Manchester United.
West Ham is led by 25-year-old F Jarrod Bowen (9 goals) and has 4 other players with 5 or more goals. West Ham is allowing 1.3 goals per game and is just 6-7-3 on the road.
Chelsea vs. West Ham odds, lines, picks and predictions
Odds provided by Tipico Sportsbook; access USA TODAY Sports Scores and Sports Betting Odds hub for a full list. Lines last updated at 1:04 a.m. ET.
- Money line: Chelsea -190 (bet $190 to win $100) | West Ham +490 (bet $100 to win $490) | Draw +340
- Over/Under: 2.5 (O: -140 | U: +115)
[tipico]
Prediction
Chelsea 2, West Ham 1
Money line (ML)
PASS.
West Ham has lost 4 straight against teams ranked in the EPL’s top 6. While Chelsea has oddly been worse at home than on the road, I still don’t necessarily trust West Ham to do enough to earn a draw.
While I usually transition to both teams to score wager, neither truly has good value as both teams to score “yes” is -122 and “no” is -112.
I would lean to the “no,” but with Chelsea having given up 4 to Arsenal in Wednesday’s match, I can’t trust it enough to keep West Ham off the board.
Yet, Chelsea still has allowed just the 3rd-fewest goals in the EPL. For that reason, I’d prefer to just play the total.
Over/Under (O/U)
BET OVER 2.5 (-140).
Chelsea has been dynamic lately, scoring 2 against Arsenal. In its last 6 EPL games, Chelsea has scored 17 goals and surrendered 9. However, 2 of those games saw Chelsea yield 4 goals in each match. West Ham has more or as many goals as each of the opponents that put up 4 on Chelsea.
Also, both teams rank in the bottom 6 in tackles.
West Ham has had over 2.5 goals in 3 of its last 5 league matches. It has played a top-3 EPL defense 4 times, and 3 of those games have seen at least 3 goals netted.
While it’s certainly not a risk-free bet, it’s the best wager in this high-level battle.
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