Chelsea have the Monday night game on match day thirty-seven, and they’ll travel up to Birmingham to take on West Bromwich Albion. The Baggies have had a solid campaign, with manager Tony Pulis being a revelation for them. They sit safely in thirteenth place, but West Brom will surely want to put in a good performance for their fans in their last home game of the season. As for the Blues, Jose Mourinho has said it is the nature of the game that Chelsea will try for maximum points in their last two matches. After Monday, Chelsea will be less than a week away from finally lifting the Premier League trophy at Stamford Bridge.
Team News
At Jose Mourinho’s pre-match press conference, some important information was given regarding the availability of our players. ‘I think Diego Costa is selected for this game,’ he said. ‘I cannot confirm now because the game is on Monday but with two days to train I think he should be ready for this game.’ The Portuguese boss said that ‘the season is over’ for Ramires, Oscar, and Zouma, and that Petr Cech has a chance to be available for the last match. With nothing to play for this is a great chance to bring in the youth, and Mourinho has confirmed that both Nathan Ake and Izzy Brown will feature. It will be interesting to see what kind of reception Isaiah Brown gets from the Albion fans. After an impressive performance last weekend from Ruben Loftus-Cheek, one can only hope that he’ll see some game time on Monday night as well.
Recent Form
Chelsea are coming off of a bit of an underwhelming ninety minutes versus Liverpool at The Bridge in which the two sides shared the points. West Brom were also only able to notch a draw with Newcastle last weekend. Monday night’s result won’t really matter for both clubs, but by no means is that an indication that they will take their feet off the gas pedal.
Prediction
Last year at the Hawthorns, Chelsea were unable to grab all three points from a stubborn Albion side. While the result on Monday won’t affect either club’s Premier League status, I think it’ll be an entertaining match in which I hope to see the youth given a decent chance. I’m going for West Brom 1-2 Chelsea with a late Izzy Brown winner.
