Chelsea v Tottenham: match betting preview, prediction & free tip

Free football tips, best bets and analysis for Chelsea v Tottenham in the Premier League on Saturday.

Where to watch

BT Sport 1, 12.30pm Saturday

Best bet

Chelsea to win the second half
1pt 21-20 Betway, BoyleSports

Team news

Chelsea
N'Golo Kante joins Christian Pulisic, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ruben Loftus-Cheek on the treatment table. Andreas Christensen and Tammy Abraham are doubts.

Tottenham
Harry Kane, Heung-Min Son and Mo Sissoko are out. Tanguy Ndombele and Erik Lamela are pushing for starts.

Chelsea v Tottenham match preview

Tottenham’s hopes of winning this season’s Champions League are hanging by a thread and their chances of qualifying for next season’s competition might not be looking too rosy following their visit to Chelsea.

Jose Mourinho returns to Stamford Bridge just three days after he presided over his side's 1-0 Champions League loss to Leipzig, a scoreline which flattered Spurs rather than the impressive Germans.

The former Chelsea chief complained that many of his stars were running on empty by the close and the quick turnaround certainly doesn’t do him any great favours.

But the bigger negatives against Tottenham are that they are not playing particularly well, no matter what their results say, and they are missing top scorers Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son.

They will arrive at the Bridge in fifth place just one point behind Chelsea, but that gap may be four points at the final whistle.

Chelsea, who in contrast to Tottenham are playing pretty well but not getting the results, are a short price against a side they have become accustomed to beating on their home patch. The Blues have lost just one of their last 33 home matches against Spurs.

If the home win looks a bit short, punters may prefer to take the 21-20 that Chelsea win the second half when, if Wednesday night is anything to go by, Tottenham’s players could be flagging.

This is Tottenham’s third match in six days and their winter break was shorter than many teams had because of an FA Cup replay against Southampton which they were lucky to win.

They didn’t just ride their luck against Southampton, home and away. They were absolutely battered by Manchester City but took advantage of a City red card and grabbed the only chances that came their way.

There’s no great flair or style to the way they play under Mourinho and he will simply point out their results.

But Chelsea are playing nicer stuff while having absolutely no luck, as illustrated in Monday’s 2-0 home league loss against Manchester United.

They should have put the game to bed in the first half but were wasteful, conceded a couple of poor goals and had two of their own chalked off by VAR.

They bossed pretty much every department against Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men except the one that mattered.

Only Manchester City are averaging more shots per game than Chelsea, who can’t rely on Michy Batshuayi in Tammy Abraham’s absence. Not that Abraham was playing that well before his injury. Olivier Giroud, who netted one of those two disallowed goals, is the fans’ choice to start against Tottenham.

Spurs would love to have a line-leader such as Giroud in their ranks. Mourinho couldn’t call upon a genuine number against Leipzig, so tried to muddle through and it was futile. It’s hard to know what his solution is going to be with Kane and Son still missing because the personnel options haven’t changed.

Sixteen years have passed since Jacques Santini famously parked the Spurs bus at Stamford Bridge against Mourinho. In the absence of any focus in attack, expect the master Portuguese tactician to try to repeat the feat – but come up short.