It’s another action-packed week with lots of interesting fixtures to wager on, but my focus at this time is on the day 10 English Women’s Super League (WSL) fixture between the solid leaders Chelsea F.C Women and Leicester City F.C Women. A match between teams with very contrasting ambitions and forms but yet with valuable betting opportunities; which of course we are going to take advantage of. First, let’s see how both teams have been fairing so far in and out of the League.
Chelsea F.C Women – The Goliath of WSL
The Blues are picking up right from where they left the last campaign and are the rock-solid leaders with 8 wins out of 8 in the League, collecting all 24 points. Not only that! They are equally the team most goals scored (26) and the least goals conceded (3). Furthermore, their impressive season goes beyond the League, with a clean Champions League record of 4 wins in Group B (a group they share with Real Madrid, Twente, & Celtic).
If anyone was expecting Sonia Bompastor to struggle as the new manager of this iconic club, they need to rethink because she has managed to take an already performant team and make it even better; which is something very hard to do. The expectations and objectives are very high for the Blues. Ask every fan in West London and they will tell you their greatest wish this season is to win the Female Champions League. If this occurs, they will become only the second English club to do so, and the new team to win it under the new format (after Arsenal lifted the trophy in the 2006/2007 season).
Chelsea F.C Women have won 18 consecutive games (all competition), often completely whitewashing their opponents with heavy scorelines (6-0 vs Chelsea, 9-0 vs Feyenoord, 7-0 vs Crystal Palace, 5-2 vs Tottenham, 5-0 vs Everton, 3-0 vs Liverpool, 3-0 vs Celtic).
One of the ingredients of The Blue’s success is the depth of its squad, with at least 2 top players that can do the job at any given role. The team is very compact and players depend on each other both on and off the ball. That said, we can’t totally write off the individual performances of winger Guro Reiten whose 6 goal contributions have been vital. Johanna Kaneryd, Mayra Ramirez, and Agnes Beever-Jones have also performed well this season.
That said, in their last match against Manchester United, although they dominated the game, they had a hard time converting the chances into goals. The lone goal came from the penalty spot in the 17th minute of play after Mayra Ramirez was brought down by Tullis-Joyce in a 1-on-1 attempt.
Next, they face Brighton & Hove Albion at home on day 9 before welcoming Twente on the 11th of December in the Women’s Champions League. Both games can be considered easy by the standards of Chelsea and we can bet they will be collecting all the points in those. Now, knowing how strong The Blues are, let’s see how Leicester City Women F.C. compare.
Leicester City Women F.C – The Big Underdogs
Not much can really be expected from a team that joined the Women’s Super League barely a few years ago; but Leicester City can definitely improve, especially after a brilliant run the last season’s F.A Cup where they reached the semifinals. They ended the previous 2 campaigns at the 10th spot and after 8 games played in the current season, they still sit on the good old 10th spot (5 points, only 2 goals scored and 8 conceded).
After 3 consecutive losses in the League to Brighton & Hove Albion, West Ham United, and Manchester United, they managed to draw in the Woman’s FA Cup group fixture last week against Brighton & Hove Albion, before winning on penalties. This gives them something positive to cheer about before their difficult away trip to Manchester City who are 2nd of the League with 19 points before welcoming Birmingham City in the FWL on December 12th at The King Power Stadium. None of these 2 fixtures can be considered easy because both adversaries can score goals (2 on average per game).
The Head-to-Head Stats
If you are a fan of the Foxes, then the H2H stats might give you heartbreak! From 2021 to date, Leicester Women have faced Chelsea Women F.C. 7 times and lost all 7 encounters. More painful is the scorelines: 2-0, 7-0, 9-0, 8-0, 6-0, 5-2 and 4-0.
Blues vs Foxes – The Prediction
The favorite here is very clear! I’m eying the Asian Handicap and the goals market for this prediction, but the odds can move pretty fast.
Both teams have 2 games to handle before facing off and a lot can change, that’s why I’m a little cautious with the betting market I’m considering.
Update
Without much surprise, things went as I had predicted! Leicester lost 4-0 in their away game to Manchester City while Chelsea won 4-2 at home to Brighton & Hove Albion. The blues dominated their game entirely with 31 shots vs 18 for Brighton and a 57% ball possession. On the other hand, Leicester City couldn’t do better than 8 shots throughout their match against the citizens who also completely dominated the ball possession with 72%.
Chelsea F.C Women have an important match in the Champions League on the 17th, and experts believe Sonia Bompastor might rest some of her key players in the Leicester match, but that isn’t likely to happen because Manchester City is just 5 points away from them and need them to slip to further close the gap in this title race.
In a recent press conference prior to welcoming the Dutch Champions FC Twente, coach Bompastor said “We just want to keep going and keep winning”. She also told the media in her pre-match press conference:“It’s part of our mentality. It’s part of the DNA of the club. We never take anything for granted. Every game is really important. We want to keep our good dynamic, our good results and the main goal in this group is for us to stay in first place at the top of the table. We still have two games left and we want to win both.”
Given the fact that there’ve been on average 6 goals scored the last 7 times Leicester met Chelsea, I will be going for the over 3.5 market here, especially considering the striking force of Chelsea currently. The odd for this market is around 1.837 and you should register on BetSpider to profit from this exclusive prediction.