Football Bet of the Day: Nkunku can produce again for Chelsea

The Europa League and Conference League provide us with a plethora of fixtures to get stuck into on Thursday night, as it is Europe’s third-most prestigious competition that catches our eye. Chelsea are back in action in the Conference League as they travel to Greece to take on Panathinaikos at 17:45, with the game live on TNT Sports 1.

It’s the main feature for our Football Bet of the Day for Thursday, October 24, and below you can find further details about this selection. 

Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca has been very open about the Conference League this season, but it looks to be a blessing rather than a curse given his extremely large squad. "At the moment it looks like we have players that are playing in the Premier League and players that are playing in the cups. At the moment it is like this but in general it won't be like this,” he said after the matchday one win over Genk. 

Clearly, the priority this season is the league and it’s absolutely fine to separate the two, as Maresca has done so far. Cole Palmer, Nicolas Jackson, Moises Caicedo and Robert Sanchez are just a few names that are clearly part of the first-choice XI, with the likes of Pedro Neto, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Mykhailo Mudryk and Filip Jorgensen destined to play in this competition for now. 

Panathinaikos vs Chelsea Odds

The manager won’t want to admit it, but we can clearly see that there is currently a divide in the squad. This can work to our advantage however as we can almost guarantee gametime for some talented second-string stars. The one we are going to focus on is Christopher Nkunku, who has impressively scored seven goals in 12 appearances so far this term. 

When we dig into the stats, it gets even more impressive. He’s averaging a goal every 63 minutes and his lack of gametime in the Premier League surely can’t last for long. He’s only been given one start in the league by Maresca, and that came on the opening day in a 2-0 defeat to Manchester City. Since then he’s been handed a total of 82 league minutes in seven matches from the bench, hardly enough time to make an impact. 

The Frenchman deserves more of a chance, and he’s delivered when given starts this season. Three goals in three games in the Europa Conference League (including qualifying) so far speak of his ability, while he also hit a hat-trick in the Carabao Cup game against Barrow. For club and country this season, he has seven goals from just six starts. 

Chelsea should go on and dominate not only this game, but the entire competition. Nkunku has all the quality to deliver in big moments, and he will almost certainly start this game. Panathinaikos aren’t in great form at the minute, and drew 1-1 with Bosnian side FK Borac Banja Luka in their opening game in this competition, while they currently sit sixth in the Super League Greece. 

Chelsea should hammer them in truth, given the money that has been spent at Stamford Bridge. Against weak opposition, I think backing Nkunku to score at anytime is the most sensible selection for Thursday night.