Chelsea vs Malmo

Chelsea will be keen to return to winning ways in the UEFA Champions League when they take on Group H basement boys Malmo at Stamford Bridge.

Champions League holders Chelsea followed up a narrow 1-0 home win over Zenit St Petersburg with an identical away defeat to Juventus as they stare at the prospect of losing back-to-back matches in the competition for the first time under Thomas Tuchel. A lack of creativity up top saw the ‘Blues’ score from one of just two shots on target against the Russians while they failed to attempt a single shot on target against Juve last time out. However, overwhelming favorites to claim all three points here, the Premier League giants have never lost a European fixture to Swedish opponents (W3, D3). If they win here, it is likely to be accompanied by a clean sheet, considering six of Chelsea’s nine 90-minute victories this season have come ‘to nil.’

Meanwhile, a brace of 3-0 defeats to Juventus and Zenit means Malmo are unlikely to put Chelsea’s return of just two defeats from their last 48 Champions League home games in jeopardy. Alarmingly, the visitors have lost their last five Champions League fixtures by an aggregate score of 24-0, succumbing to a 3+ goal margin on each occasion. Malmo’s paltry scoring return in Europe is a sharp contrast to their domestic exploits, with Jon Dahl Tomasson’s side netting 13 goals across their previous four domestic fixtures, including a 3-0 hammering of Östersunds last time out. Though their hopes of getting off the mark here look highly improbable, it’s worth noting that none of Malmo’s last six competitive away matches have ended level (W3, L3), with four of them yielding a single-goal margin.