Chelsea vs Noah Prediction: Blues to flood Noah at the Bridge

Chelsea resume their Uefa Conference League campaign on Thursday (20:00, TNT Sports 1) with the visit of Armenian outfit Noah to Stamford Bridge. The west London club sit top of the league phase heading into matchweek three after beating Gent 4-2 at home and Panathinaikos 4-1 in Greece last time out, while their visitors are on three points following a 2-0 win over Mlada Boleslav and a 1-0 defeat at SK Rapid Wien.

Below is my Chelsea vs Noah prediction, complete with all the latest team news and match odds. 

Team News

Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca is likely to ring the changes from Sunday's 1-1 draw with Manchester United at Old Trafford. Cole Palmer and Romeo Lavia haven't been named in the Blues' Conference League squad for the league phase so the former Manchester City youngsters are ineligible to feature on Thursday. The same can be said for Wesley Fofana.

Reece James, Levi Colwill, Malo Gusto, Moises Caicedo and Nicolas Jackson all started at the weekend but none of the quartet were in the squad for Chelsea's last European encounter against Panathinaikos in Greece and are all likely to be watching on from the stands or at home on Thursday.

Filip Jorgensen is set to replace Robert Sanchez in goal with a four-man backline of Marc Cucurella, Benoit Badiashile, Tosin Adarabioyo and Axel Disasi.

Renato Veiga could line up in midfield alongside Enzo Fernandez and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, with a front three of Christopher Nkunku, Joao Felix and Mykhailo Mudryk.

Cesare Casadei, Carney Chukwuemeka and Marc Guiu are among those also looking for minutes in midweek.

Jadon Sancho hasn't featured since the 2-1 defeat to Liverpool on October 20 and remains out.

Football Odds

Martin Gambos has been out for Noah since being taken off injured inside the first 30 minutes of their 2-1 defeat to Urartu on September 29. The 26-year-old is set to miss out again on Thursday, as is left-back Gudmundur Thorarinsson, who only lasted the first 17 minutes of the Armenian side's 1-0 Conference League defeat to SK Rapid Wien last month.

Portuguese forward Goncalo Gregorio, meanwhile, staked his claim for a start at Stamford Bridge with the winner off the bench in Friday's 2-1 victory over Urartu.

Chelsea vs Noah Odds

*Please click on the link above to be taken to the main Chelsea vs Noah page on betfred.com (or app) for all the live betting prices on this match.

Chelsea are huge favourites at 1/20 to keep up their perfect start to the league phase, giving the Premier League giants an implied win probability of 95.2%. Their visitors on Thursday, Noah, are 40/1, or a 2.4% chance, to pull off a mighty upset in west London.

A draw is priced at 12/1, both teams to score at 7/4, and over 3.5 total goals at 4/6.

Nkunku (8/13) and Joao Felix (9/10) are among the leading pack in the anytime goalscorer market, and the Chelsea duo are 3/1 and 4/1, respectively, to strike first in SW6. Gregorio (11/2) is considered Noah's most likely anytime goalscorer.

Half-time Handicap - Chelsea -1 @ 23/20

Football games aren't won on paper, and Chelsea have only been a single goal ahead in both Conference League matches so far this season; however, Chelsea's second-string side, worth hundreds and hundreds of millions, should be easily outclassing a club only formed seven years ago and one that had never made it past the qualifying stages of a European competition before this year.

There is the danger of the unknown and Chelsea have recently experienced difficulties playing other lesser-known teams on the continent, scraping past Swiss side Servette 3-2 in qualifying after losing the second leg 2-1 in Geneva.

Gent, meanwhile, scored twice at Stamford Bridge last month, and like the Belgians, Panathinaikos were only one goal down at half-time in Athens before collapsing in the second half.

However, Noah are - on paper - a much inferior side to the aforementioned trio, and probably more akin to League 2 Barrow, who the Blues battered 5-0 in the Carabao Cup third round in September.

Maresca's men were three up inside 28 minutes against the Bluebirds and added another two after the interval.

Chelsea have also been two goals ahead at half-time in victories over West Ham United (2-0, won 3-0) and Brighton & Hove Albion (4-2, won 4-2), while Noah were 2-0 down after the first 45 minutes of their Conference League qualifier second leg against Slovenian side Ruzomberok in August.

The Armenians were also one down at the interval in their last European contest at Rapid Wien and could probably count themselves fortunate they weren't further behind with the Austrians creating 1.42 xG compared to their 0.12 - goalkeeper Ognjen Cancarevic was forced into four first-half saves.

Chelsea ought to sail into an early lead in front of their own supporters, who will be urging them on to add to their advantage as quickly as possible.

With the firepower available to Maresca, there are few excuses for them not to be at least a couple up by half-time on Thursday, really.

Easier said than done of course, but with limited value to be found in this match, I'm taking the half-time -1 handicap on Chelsea at 23/20 with the belief that the Blues can easily impose themselves on their visitors.

Bet Builder - Both Teams to Score - No, Christopher Nkunku (CHE) & Joao Felix (CHE) Anytime Goalscorers, Chelsea Over 5.5 Team Corners @ 4/1

With Chelsea short-priced in most markets, I'm combining four selections to draw up a 4/1 Bet Builder, which I think has a great chance of landing.

Nkunku and Joao Felix are the most obvious candidates to score for Chelsea in the absence of Palmer and Jackson, and the duo have duly delivered so far for the Blues, netting twice each in the competition.

The Frenchman struck a goal apiece in wins over Gent and Panathinaikos while Portugal international Joao Felix bagged a brace in Greece last time out, his second and third strikes of the season after netting his first in the 6-2 Premier League thrashing of Wolverhampton Wanderers on August 25.

Nkunku, meanwhile, has eight club goals in the current campaign, and like Joao Felix, should play the majority, if not all, of Thursday's match after both failed to feature at Old Trafford.

I'm also adding in BTTS - No, which is essentially saying that I don't think Noah will score as I am already backing Chelsea via Nkunku and Felix.

Noah scored twice at home against Mlada Boleslav in their first league phase match in September but blanked in defeat to Rapid Wien last time out in the competition, and Chelsea represent huge steps up in class on both.

The Blues are yet to keep a clean sheet in the league phase but I think this is a match where Maresca will be targeting, and expecting, one.

The final leg of this Bet Builder requires the hosts to take over 5.5 corners, something they have done in both league phase games against Gent (10) and Panathinaikos (six).

Noah conceded six corners each to Mlada Boleslav and SK Rapid Wien, and away to Chelsea, are expected to give up even more.

Offers

Acca Flex: Place a pre-match 5+ leg Football accumulator and get a CASH bonus up to 100% if all of your selections win or your money back as CASH if one leg lets you down.

You can read all our latest Football Betting Tips at our dedicated Betfred Insights content hub.