Football Bet of the Day: Price Boost for another Chelsea win

Chelsea are back in Conference League action on Thursday night as they travel to the capital of Kazakhstan to take on Astana. This one has the strange kick-off time of 15:30 in the UK, with Kazakhstan five hours ahead, and the game will be shown live on TNT Sports on Thursday afternoon. 

Below you can find my Football Bet of the Day for Thursday, December 12, which focuses on Chelsea’s trip to Eastern Europe. 

Betfred have put together a couple of Price Boosts for this fixture, and I want to take advantage of that as Chelsea look to continue their perfect form in this competition. They’ve won four from four in the Conference League so far, and let’s be honest, it’s a competition they are far too good for. It will be a staggering surprise if they don’t lift this trophy in 2025, given the quality they have littered throughout their squad. 

The Blues are now in the hunt for the Premier League title and should be competing in the Champions League next term, which speaks volumes of the job that Enzo Maresca has done there. I’ll admit to being one of his critics when he was in the Championship last term, but he has proven me, and a lot of other doubters wrong so far. 

His main strength has been separating his team into two squads, one for the Conference League and one for the Premier League. He has also trimmed the fat of what was a bloated squad, with the likes of Raheem Sterling heading out the door over the summer. A lot was made of Chelsea’s 40+ first-team players, but Maresca has focused on the hand he has, and now it looks like a strong one. 

The high-cards in the pack, Cole Palmer, Nicolas Jackson and Enzo Fernandez, may not be used in this fixture, but it is the strength of the deck that makes the Blues so dangerous. Christopher Nkunku has been one of the stars of this competition so far, and we are backing him to score in a game that Chelsea should win comfortably. 

He’s scored in every Conference League game so far, and now has five goals to his name in just four appearances in this competition. He’s a man of immense quality who arguably deserves a start in the bigger games, but for now, he will continue to score goals at this level. We can also back Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall to find the net. He’s one of Maresca’s favourite players, having worked together in that title-winning season at Leicester, and although he only has one goal to his name in the Conference League so far, he did play 90 minutes last time out and should get a few opportunities. 

Chelsea are going to dominate every team they play in Europe this season, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them come away with another big win here. They’ve hit 18 goals in the four matches they’ve played so far, while Astana have just four points to their name. Conditions may be tough, with temperatures set to drop to about -11C, but Chelsea will show their class here. I think they’ll win and Nkunku will score, so adding Dewsbury-Hall to that for a price of 6/1 feels like good value.