SlipsTips Tips: Wolves vs Chelsea

After delivering a pair of even-money and a 7/1 winners in his featured column on Saturday, SlipsTips is back with two selections ahead of Wolves' Christmas Eve encounter with Chelsea on Sunday.

Wolves vs Chelsea (Sunday, 13:00)

Christmas Eve’s solitary Premier League fixture sees Wolverhampton Wanderers welcome Chelsea to Molineux.

The hosts are without a win in their last two league games and have dropped down to 14th place in the table after last weekend’s 3-0 reverse at West Ham.

As for Chelsea, they have posted a rather hot and cold set of results under Mauricio Pochettino’s management thus far, though they did beat Sheffield United last Saturday before booking a Carabao Cup semi-final berth at the expense of Newcastle in midweek.

The Blues make the trip to the Black Country as odd-on 10/11 favourites with most firms but I’m once again going to highlight a player-based selection that makes appeal.

Wolves defender Craig Dawson has been priced up at 4/5 with PaddyPower to commit a solitary foul on Sunday and that just looks too big to ignore.

The seasoned Premier League centre-half has never been one to shy away from throwing his weight around and that is evidenced by the fact that he has committed an average of one foul per-game across his overall 337 top-flight appearances.

In terms of this season, Dawson is averaging 0.9 fouls per 90 in the Premier League, getting on the wrong side of the referee at least once in five of Wolves’ last seven league games.

In fact, the no-nonsense defender has clocked up a total of eight fouls across that stretch of seven games and he should be kept busy on Christmas Eve given the pace, flair and power that Chelsea possess in forward areas.

With that in mind, coupled with the fact that Dawson has already picked up five yellow cards in 16 Premier League appearances this season, siding with the Old Gold stopper to be reprimanded just once stands out at 4/5 (PaddyPower).

Given that Dawson has committed exactly two fouls in three of his last six outings for Wolves, I’m also prepared to take it one step further and have a smaller play on two misdemeanours at a tasty 4/1 with PaddyPower.