Chelsea v AC Milan betting sees the Blues continue their pre-season Tour of the USA. Roberto Di Matteo’s men head to the clash on the back of a defeat against the MLS All Stars though. After holding a 2-1 lead with goals from John Terry and Frank Lampard, the Blues were undone by some poor defensive lapses and the All Stars pounced. Chelsea have not really looked like a well rounded side at all yet during the pre-season. The defence has certainly struggled to get up to par, and they have been lacking quality up front, with young Belgian player Romelu Lukaku getting time to prove himself following the void left behind by the departure of Didier Drogba. So Roberto Di Matteo still looks as if he is trying to pull all the pieces together and get those pieces into a system and formation which works for him. Frank Lampard has continued to look evergreen, and German Marko Marin has also been impressive for the Blues on the Tour so far. So while there are issues to be ironed out, and with Chelsea stating that they are looking to sign a couple more players before the start of the season, they need to start getting tighter because the Community Shield against Manchester City is right around the corner.
In fact, this will be Chelsea’s last pre-season friendly match before taking on City at Wembley on August 12th. So this may be the match where Chelsea pull something close to a starting line up together, at least for half of the match in order to get a good look at things. The thing about this match is that Chelsea’s experimentation with formations and personnel has at least kept a good team unity going in the side and that may just help them against a somewhat fractured AC Milan. The Milanese of course sold two of their star players to Paris St Germain, shipping out Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thiago Motta. That has caused some fractures with fans, although Milan’s reasons were purely financial (and quite smart). Such division the transfers have caused, that AC Milan offered to refund pre-season tickets to fans who had purchased them ahead of the big sale. So now the big task at hand for AC Milan is that they have to try and prove that they can be dangerous and competitive without Ibrahimovic leading the line with his big goals.
Milan beat German side Schalke 1-0 recently although their opponents had laid siege to the Rossoneri’s net in the first half, dominating the game. But AC Milan stood firm and then snatched a winner 20 minutes from time. The other big rumour at AC Milan at the moment, is that Brazilian midfielder Kaka may be heading back to the San Siro from Real Madrid. So Milan perhaps are not going to be as strong as they were last season in Serie A when they were challenging for the title, so Chelsea’s youthful exuberance and that chance the players have to earn a first team spot, could see the Blues take the win in this one. They will want to bounce back after the MLS All Stars defeat
Chelsea v AC Milan Betting Odds at online bookmaker Bet365
Chelsea 7/5, AC Milan 8/5, Draw 12/5
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