Chelsea v Blackburn Rovers Preview: English Premier League Football

Chelsea v Blackburn Rovers

Saturday 24 October 2009, Stamford Bridge
Kickoff: 17:30

Chelsea

Chelsea welcome Blackburn to Stamford Bridge on Saturday for this Chelsea vs Blackburn Rovers meeting after a convincing 4-0 victory over Atletico Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday.

The win put Carlo Ancelotti’s mean machine back on course following the Blues' 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa last Saturday.

Salomon Kalou bagged two of the four goals for Chelsea against Madrid in place of Didier Drogba, who finished serving his three match ban.

Despite lacking the service of the strong Ivorian, Chelsea have been perfect through three matches in the Champions League and can now afford to shift their full attention to the English Premier League.

Ancelotti will hope his side can take a head of steam into this Chelsea v Blackburn match, as a run of inconsistent results in the league have seen them bumped from their throne.

Chelsea now trail league leaders Manchester United by one point, but with United playing a tough weekend match against Liverpool at Anfield, a win in this Chelsea - Blackburn fixture could see Chelsea reclaim the top position.

Blackburn

Blackburn did well to turn the tables on Burnley in Sunday’s derby.

Sam Allardyce’s men fell behind after just five minutes thanks to a Robbie Blake goal, but quickly responded and found themselves up 2-1 just 16 minutes later. Pascal Chimbonda scored a third just before the break as the home side held on for a 3-2 victory.

Franco Di Santo, currently on loan from Chelsea, has been the centre of attention recently with a return to Stamford Bridge being the heart of speculation. The young Argentinian netted against Burnley when lack of communication and poor defending in the box presented an easy header, which the striker finished clinically.

Blackburn have now won their last three matches at Ewood Park, although they have conceded nine goals in losing their last two away matches. The Rovers will want to turn this trend around in Saturday's Chelsea-Blackburn match, undoubtedly.

Prediction

Last season's Chelsea v Blackburn Rovers meeting at Stamford Bridge ended in a 2-0 Blues victory, whilst the reverse fixture at Ewood Park also saw Chelsea win by the same scoreline.

Coming into Saturday's Chelsea-Blackburn Rovers match, the same result would seem like a reasonable prediction.

However, Chelsea have netted an average of 2.5 goals per game at home this season in the league, in addition to putting four in the back of the net against Atletico on Wednesday.

Blackburn, on the other hand, have yet to post an away win this season, having already conceded 11 goals in three matches on the road.

Therefore, Chelsea will enter this match as extremely strong favourites, but with a very distinct possibility of making the scoreline rather more one-sided than in recent meetings.

Chelsea v Blackburn Prediction: Chelsea 3 - Blackburn 0

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And check out our other weekend previews, including Real Madrid vs Gijon in the Spanish La Liga Primera!