Four tasty prop bets for Friday’s Chelsea vs. Liverpool fixture
By George Perry
We know there’s much more to predict before a Chelsea game than just the starting XI and the result. Chelsea vs. Liverpool will give us 90 minutes of action, so here are our top prop bets for Friday’s fixture.
The football world is salivating at the prospect of Diego Costa finally seeing a red card against Liverpool on Friday. Football Twitter might just explode before Costa has a chance to throw a chair down the Stamford Bridge tunnel if he is sent off.
But despite the pundit hate-fest, the odds are in Costa’s favor. Costa has only received two red cards in top flight play, both in La Liga. Thibaut Courtois, on the other hand, had two red cards last year alone and appears on track for another one.
Aside from Diego’s discipline, what are some of the other best prop bets for Chelsea’s fixture against Liverpool?
All odds were taken from Sky Bet and were correct at the time of writing. All data from Stats Zone.
Yellow and red cards
Each Team To Get 40 Or More Booking Points – 8/1
Liverpool will be Chelsea’s fastest, highest-pressing and most aggressive opponent so far this season. The Reds will look to overwhelm Chelsea’s midfield and defence with a lot of bodies moving very quickly. Imagine an entire team of Pedro, but organized.
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Even with David Luiz in at centre-back, Chelsea’s back-line is far from agile. Liverpool will test N’Golo Kante’s ability to be everywhere at once, leaving Nemanja Matic to flail wildly for loose balls and attempted tackles. Eventually, Matic will cut someone down with a clumsy tackle or Branislav Ivanovic will haul down a Liverpool player who slips by him with the slightest bit of pace. That could be the first breather Chelsea gets in the opening 10 minutes.
The same argument works pretty well the other way. The Blues possess their fair share of tricky attackers and Liverpool having a cataclysmic defence. This fixture could be littered with yellow cards. We think that ‘Each Team To Get 40 Or More Booking Points’ represents solid risk/reward.
How many corner kicks will Chelsea earn? How many will they concede?
8+ Chelsea corners – 21/10
Liverpool 0 to 3 corners – 11/8
Liverpool have an odd relationship with corner kicks so far this season. In their 4-1 victory of Leicester City last weekend, Liverpool earned only one corner kick while conceding seven. The Reds’ best day on corner kicks – earning 12 while giving up only one – came in their 2-0 defeat at Burnley. Liverpool earns on average just over 5.4 corner kicks per game and surrenders 4.5.
Chelsea, on the other hand, have kept their set piece takers busy this season. The Blues average eight corners kicks per game, while conceding fewer than two per game.
David Luiz on the scoresheet
David Luiz to score in 90 mins – 8/1
David Luiz is set to make his second Chelsea debut against Liverpool. John Terry’s ankle injury means that he is unavailable, leaving Antonio Conte with little option but to deploy his re-acquired Brazilian.
Related Story: David Luiz's best 7 Chelsea FC goals
Luiz was not very good at defending during his first stint at Stamford Bridge. However, he did possess a pretty decent strike. The defender scored a fair few screamers during his time at West London, so what better way to reintroduce yourself than by reminding everyone of that?
It is unclear whether he will be in a four-man or three-man defence. What we do know is that he’ll likely spend the majority of the game in the opposition half. Give him a bit of space and this 8/1 shout could land you a couple of pints.
The wildcard special
Costa to score a header and Liverpool to score a penalty – 125/1
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Well, the excitement of betting truly comes from whacking money on something with ridiculous odds that somehow seems credible in your mind. With that, we have the wildcard special. This is the bet with some pretty long odds, but hey, it can still be somewhat justified.
At first glance, Costa scoring with his head seems like the risky part of punt. But just last week Costa scored a brace off his head in Spain’s romp over Spain. The Spaniard is still much more likely to score with his feet, but a Costa header is not the craziest thing we can think of in this fixture.
For the latter part of the bet, what else do we need to say but “David Luiz?” The Brazilian simply cannot defend (even though he’ll likely start as a centre-back). Against the dancing feet of Philippe Coutinho and Sadio Mane (amongst others), we can certainly see Luiz stumbling over one of them in the box. A penalty has to be converted, unless you’re playing for England in any major international game.
Are you going to stick money on any of these? Let us know in the comments below!