Chelsea vs Juventus

Chelsea entertain Juventus in a tasty-looking top-table UEFA Champions League Group H fixture at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea have found the Premier League a stroll so far (W9, D2, L1), and if it wasn’t for a 1-0 loss at Juventus in the reverse fixture, the same could’ve been said about the Champions League (W3, L1). All of Chelsea’s three Group H victories have come ‘to nil,’ which was the case in their 3-0 thrashing of Leicester City last weekend. Still, since beating Juve 1-0 in their first-ever Champions League home encounter in 2009, the ‘Blues’ have gone winless in their subsequent four H2Hs in the competition (D2, L2). That’s very much in line with Chelsea’s recent struggle against Italian adversaries, as they’ve only won one of their last ten such match-ups in the Champions League (D3, L6), courtesy of a 4-1 thumping of Napoli in 2012. Thomas Tuchel’s men have conceded the fewest goal (1) and faced the fewest shots on target (3) of any team across the opening four Champions League matchdays.

As for Juventus, a hard-fought 2-0 away win over Lazio over the weekend sets them up nicely for this trip as they look to become the first side ever to beat Chelsea in three consecutive Champions League meetings. ‘I Bianconeri’ have won their last five Champions League outings on the trot and could establish a new club record for successive wins in the competition with another success here. What’s more, the record-time Italian champions have racked up a three-match winning Champions League run away to English sides and could become the first team ever to win four consecutive such games. But after scoring precisely once in four of their last five road trips in all competitions (W3, D1, L1), breaking down Chelsea’s rock-solid defense could be a problem.