CHELSEA V MACCABI TEL AVIV: NO NIGHT OFF FOR BLUES

Chelsea 1.18 v Maccabi Tel Aviv 24.00; The Draw 8.60
Wednesday, 19:45
Live on BT Sport 2

Chelsea

Having wasted the conspiracy card on the campaign that they coasted to the title and been similarly hasty in deploying the "everything is the physio's fault" trick, Jose Mourinho has seemed as off his game in media briefings as his team have on the pitch.
After dropping an F bomb on Roberto Martinez after the weekend's defeat to Everton to the ridicule of the assembled press types, he was thoroughly unconvincing in his attempt to dismiss accusations that he is a sufferer of the rare "third season syndrome".
The tactician who once discredited Manuel Pellegrini's Real Madrid achievements with the attitude that "second place is just the first loser" saw fit to trumpet that "I won the Super Cup, I lost the cup final, and I went to the Champions League semi-finals" in evaluation of his Bernabeu term three.
This is arguably Chelsea's most straightforward fixture of 2015/16 to date, and therefore a chance to see precisely how severe the problems of the past month are. Failure to win will inevitably trigger comparisons to the home draw with Rosenborg in September 2007 which ended Mourinho's first stint.
In terms of team news, Thibaut Courtois and Radamel Falcao are both unavailable, though Oscar should feature for the first time since the opening day.

Maccabi Tel Aviv
The Israeli champions earned their first group-stage participation in 11 years the hard way, pushing through three rounds of qualifiers at the expense of Hibernians, Viktoria Plzen and FC Basel, who of course reached the knockout phase last season.
That heavy summer schedule hasn't affected their domestic title defence too much - certainly their prospects of retaining are far healthier than their hosts' - with two victories and a draw from their initial three encounters leaving them second.

Match Odds
Even if you are of the opinion that Chelsea are an immeasurably superior side, you have to ask yourself whether you trust the Londoners enough to back them at odds as short as 1.18.
On the flip side, if you feel emboldened to lay them at such an enticing price, there is a statistic that offers plenty of encouragement: they have spilled points in their previous three Champions League home openers, being held by Juventus and Schalke and beaten by FC Basel in Septembers past.

Chelsea Clean Sheet
The Blues are 1.58 to shut Maccabi Tel Aviv out, which looks like a very optimistic appraisal given that they have conceded at least twice in all five of their Premier League matches and are often looser in the Champions League.
The visitors have netted in 11 of their dozen outings in 2015/16, including all three in their league and each of their six European assignments, striking twice away to the FC Basel side that did the double over Chelsea two years ago.

Recommended Bet:

Back Chelsea not to keep a clean sheet @ 2.52