Chelsea vs Ajax Predictions

Chelsea continued their away winning streak at Watford last weekend but will their fortunes improve at home? The Blues are aiming to record their first big victory at Stamford Bridge under Frank Lampard, who identified their win at Ajax as a landmark moment for him as a manager. However, that’s left Ajax in need of both points and revenge ahead of their trip to London.

Chelsea are fourth in the Premier League and exceeding expectations after a strong start by their young English talents. The Blues have been compared to Ajax after finding this generation of players, which is a long way from the Galactico reputation they developed during the early Abramovich years. But these young Chelsea stars are unproven, while they’re yet to land a major win at Stamford Bridge.

Ajax are obviously weakened from their Champions League semi-final run last year, but they’ve still made a table-topping start domestically and they’re matching the Blues so far in this group. Ajax kicked things off with back-to-back 3-0 wins in the Champions League, while they feel like a genuine threat to the Premier League side here.

The Blues won 1-0 in Amsterdam with a last-gasp winner from Michy Batshuayi. It was an incredibly even battle, so it might be a bit much for Lampard to hail it as a major scalp. It might be a bigger deal to beat Ajax at home, given the visitors’ recent results. Last term, the Dutch side earned a point at Bayern and wins at Real Madrid, Juventus and Tottenham. Overall, the Eredivisie side are unbeaten in 13 away trips going into this meeting.

Lampard’s side have lost at home to Liverpool and Manchester United in their big domestic clashes. Lampard’s only home Champions League game as a manager saw his side lose 1-0 to Valencia in the group opener, so the Blues should be concerned here. Lampard has three wins in eight home games as Chelsea boss, seeing off Newcastle, Brighton and Grimsby. With the Blues failing to win their last four home Champions League games, we think Ajax Double Chance is a solid bet here.

We expect Ajax to do enough to get a result, while the Blues have seen some very tight games in this group so far. While their Premier League form has produced some thrilling games, the Blues have seen just six goals in total in their group games so far. The Blues have scored three and conceded three in their first three, so we think it makes sense to back Ajax to pick up a 1-1 draw on Tuesday night.