Juventus v Chelsea Prediction: Three bets as the Champions go to Turin

Chelsea were brought back down to earth with a bang at the weekend, putting in a meek performance in a 1-0 home defeat to title rivals Manchester City.

Thomas Tuchel’s side hardly threatened their opponents in Saturday’s early kick-off, accumulating just 0.19xG and being somewhat lucky not to concede more.

They’ll be grateful for a trip to Torino to put that performance behind them and will be expected to have enough in the tank to put the Old Lady to the sword.

Four games without loss and back-to-back league wins has put a little gloss on a shaky start to the season for Juventus, who are currently 9th and are already 10 points behind Napoli at the top of the table.

Still shell-shocked by the loss of Cristiano Ronaldo to Manchester United for a pittance, Massimiliano Allegri is finding it tough to undo the damage done by those who warmed his seat for him while he was away.

Losing a 36-goal striker like him is never going to be an easy task, but they’ll also be without Alvaro Morato and Paulo Dybala for this game - who contributed a combined 39 goals last season, and have combined for eight of their 13 so far this year.

With backup forwards being handed the mantle for this Group H game, the onus goes onto their midfielders to make the difference against Chelsea’s central midfield - though they’ll have the pleasure of not facing N’Golo Kante, who tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday.

It’s a boost for the home side, and the loan signing of Manuel Locatelli in the summer was a welcome one after his performances at the European Championships, but outside of him their central options leave a lot to be desired.

Aaron Ramsey, Rodrigo Bentancur, Adrien Rabiot Weston McKennie, and Arthur (injured) don't scream elite midfield play and it doesn’t translate to elite midfield play on the field either.

It leaves their centre-backs exposed often, which is bad news for Leonardo Bonucci who - despite excelling at the Euros - never really looks as comfortable in a back four as he did with a back three.

It wouldn’t be a surprise then to see Romelu Lukaku target the 34-year-old as the weaker of the two centre-backs - as he did to Giorgio Chiellini while wearing an Inter Milan shirt back in May.

The Belgian should be confident of causing all sorts of problems for the Bianconeri, and the Blues should be confident of leaving Piedmont with all three points.

It’s tough to see beyond the reigning Champions League winners at the Juventus Stadium, even without N’Golo Kante to marshal the centre of the park.

With Dybala and Morata both out for the home side I’m not convinced Juventus have the personnel to trouble Tuchel’s outstanding defensive unit and, even with Federico Chiesa pulling the strings, it could be a long night for the Old Lady.

Replacing Paulo Dybala in Sunday’s win over Sampdoria, it wouldn’t be a shock to see Dejan Kulusevski handed a starting berth in this game.

The Swede, a rumoured target for Spurs in January, commits a frankly bizarre amount of fouls for the minutes he’s been getting so far this season.

In just 242 minutes of football so far this season, the attacker has committed an almost inconceivable 14 fouls - one every 17.3 minutes on average.

He’s only been booked once, in a 30-minute cameo against Udinese, but more minutes should mean more meetings with the referee’s notebook for the 21-year-old and 5/1 represents lovely value.

Given how I’m expecting this game to go, I like the look of this BetBuilder with bet365. While I’m not convinced that Saul will start (and if he doesn’t, I’d opt for Jorginho at 17/1) but if he does there’s a good chance he’ll find himself in trouble with referee Jesús Gil Manzano.