CHELSEA and Tottenham Hotspur meet in the first real blockbuster of the English Premier League season on Sunday after both got their campaigns off to winning starts this week.
Spurs have been heavily tipped to be the most likely club to provide a challenge to Manchester City and Liverpool and this will be a fascinating encounter to see how Antonio Conte does on his return to his old club.
But this is Spurs' least favourite away trip because they have a woeful record at Stamford Bridge and Tottenham have failed to beat Chelsea in their last 13 meetings.
So we should get a good, early indicator of Spurs' title credentials or whether it is yet another false dawn. To be fair, the signs looked good in last week's 4-1 hammering of Southampton.
The new-look Chelsea got off to a decent start with a narrow 1-0 win at Everton last week, but their new owners have been criticised for their scattergun approach to recruitment.
They have forked out a whopping £162 million so far this summer on the likes of Raheem Sterling, Kalidou Koulibaly, Gabriel Slonina, Carney Chukwuemeka and Marc Cucurella.
And they will want a serious return for that sort of investment.
How the bookies view this
Home advantage means Chelsea are favourites at 5/4 with bet365. Spurs will be popular with punters you would imagine at 23/10 with SBK and the draw is 5/2 with Betfred.
Recent head to heads
As mentioned, Spurs have a shocking record against Chelsea…particularly in West London. The sides met four times in all competitions last season and Chelsea won all four games with a combined aggregate score of 8-0.
In fact, Spurs have failed to score in their last six meetings between the clubs.
Here's their last meeting with Chelsea winning 2-0 at home in January.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNmsp8fIPuY
Players to watch
New Chelsea signing Raheem Sterling popped up with more than his fair share of goals for Manchester City and will be desperate to get off the mark for the hosts. He is 11/4 with SBK to do just that.
Harry Kane is of course Spurs' talisman and needs no introduction. He is attractively-priced at 2/1 to score anytime with UniBet.
Anything else catch the eye?
The question is how much stock should punters take on board about Spurs' diabolical record against Chelsea and is it relevant on Sunday?
Spurs look to have the edge in terms of all-round quality though. This Chelsea team may take time to build and there is a real sense of something brewing under Conte, who will be extra motivated to win this. Impressively, neither Harry Kane nor Son Heung-min scored last week which gives you an indication of their strength in depth this season.
Given Spurs haven't scored in the last six meetings. you would expect them to go all out to put that right as early as they can. Go for bet365's 5/6 on them scoring before the hour mark.
This English Premier League match between Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur will be played on Aug 14, 2022 and kick off at 16:30. Check below for our tipsters best Chelsea vs Tottenham Hotspur prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
