Sky Sports pundit Charlie Nicholas has made his predictions for this weekend’s Premier League fixtures, and he’s tipped Chelsea to be beaten again.
It was business as usual for last season’s title contenders Man City and Liverpool last weekend, as they both picked up big wins to get their seasons underway on a positive note.
There were also wins for Arsenal and Man Utd, but Chelsea were on the wrong end of a heavy defeat to the latter while Tottenham were given a real test at home against Aston Villa.
However, it’s on to Week 2 and all the teams up and down the standings will be hoping to get a positive result to build some early momentum this season.
Unfortunately for Chelsea though, Nicholas sees more problems for Lampard and has predicted a shock 2-1 defeat at home to Leicester City, as per his predictions for Sky Sports.
The Blues were really impressive in the first half against United and should have held a lead, while they also played some great football at times against Liverpool in midweek.
With that in mind, it’s difficult to go against them this weekend, but Nicholas believes that they will be more vulnerable at home and Brendan Rodgers’ side have the weapons to cause them serious problems.
“I see pain and suffering for Chelsea. Frank Lampard is playing youth team players at Old Trafford because he is left with no other scenario, but his anger at not being able to drag people off the treatment room is a reflection of where Chelsea are but also where Leicester are,” Nicholas writes.
“I am going to go for a surprise score in this one. This is not a negative throw towards Lampard, I wish him well. This team will just take time to truly understand what they are, and they will be more exposed at home than away from home in my opinion.”
Time will tell whether or not his concerns for Chelsea are valid ones, but with Frank Lampard managing at Stamford Bridge for the first time in the Premier League and if he can get his side playing the good football that we’ve seen at times in the first two games, he’ll hope that they’ll have enough to see off Leicester and kick start their season.
