Chelsea expect Reading to roll over
The league leaders welcome a Reading side with old boy Bruno Duarte Ferreira in tow, and the unbeaten run is not about to end here.
Chelsea should make it eighteen without defeat when Reading come to the Drogba Arena on 29 December. The numbers say so, the form says so, and the history says so. Reading have lost the last three against Chelsea, including a 3-1 defeat at the Madejski in August, and arrive as a mid-table side with three key players missing. Chelsea, meanwhile, sit top with forty-nine points from seventeen games and have won five on the spin.
That is not to say Reading are without hope. They have won three of their last five and sit twelfth, a respectable position for a club of their means. But the gap between these two sides is not measured in points alone. Chelsea have not lost a league game all season, and at home they have been imperious. The crowd will expect a statement.
Chelsea’s own injury list is not short. Nacho Valera, Urtzi San Martín and Jairzinho are all out, and that will test the depth of Calin Dimario’s squad. Yet this is a team that has coped with absences all season and still swept all before them. The depth is real, and the bench is strong.
One subplot worth watching is Bruno Duarte Ferreira. The Reading forward spent two seasons at Chelsea, scoring eight goals in thirty-one appearances and winning three trophies. He will want to prove a point, and his former club will know exactly what he can do. But sentiment rarely decides football matches, and Chelsea’s machine is rolling.
The last meeting between these two sides, in August, saw Chelsea win 3-1 at Reading. The two before that were also Chelsea wins: 3-2 at Reading in January and 3-0 at home in September 2062. Reading have not taken a point off Chelsea in this fixture since before the first of those wins. The pattern is clear.
Nothing is decided in December, but Chelsea are making this title race a procession. Another win here, and the unbeaten run will stretch to eighteen games with the halfway point of the season reached. The challenge for Reading is not to win the game; it is to avoid being the next side swept aside.