Charlie Nicholas is of the opinion that Chelsea will lose their Champions League fixture against Valencia tonight.
The Blues are currently second in their group with seven points which is the same as Valencia and Ajax. A win for Frank Lampard’s side tonight will pretty much confirm their qualification to the knockout stages.
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Chelsea lost their home leg against Valencia in September and Nicholas feels that the Blues will endure a similar result tonight, predicting a 1-0 win for the La Liga side.
In his column for Sky Sports, the former Arsenal man wrote: “This is a very good game. Valencia beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea are much improved since and you could see that against Manchester City. This is the most exciting Chelsea team I have seen. It does not have the same quality as the one which involved John Terry, Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard, but they are far more exciting to watch.
Chelsea were outstanding for 30 minutes at the Etihad – it was more City-like than not. They didn’t get anything and that tells you something though. Valencia do not score a lot, but they do not concede. The Chelsea results against Ajax will be enough to see them through, but I am going for a defeat here.
“It will be a learning curve for the team. Lampard is using the same players here, so it does take its toll, especially in the demanding games. Injuries could lead to downfall.”
Valencia have been disappointing in La Liga this season so far but their performances in the Champions League have been pretty decent so far. They obviously have the home advantage but Chelsea have a fair chance of beating them. The Blues managed to beat Ajax in Amsterdam and given the current form of their players, it won’t be much of a surprise if they triumph at the Mestalla stadium tonight.
