Chelsea vs Norwich City Preview: Match tempo, shot maps and more – what do the stats say? | OneFootball

Chelsea host Norwich City at home as the leaders look to maintain their position at the top of the Premier League table. The Blues marched to a 1-0 win over Brentford in gameweek eight, while Norwich claimed their second point of the season against Brighton & Hove Albion.

The home side were rampant in their 4-0 victory over Malmo in the UEFA Champions League. They will be looking to maintain the momentum as they turn their attention to the Premier League.

Chelsea have been dominating possession of the ball in most of the games. They have a high match tempo of 18.85 which means the number of passes they are completing in a minute when they have possession of the ball. With a team like Norwich playing against them who have a bad defensive record so far in the season, Chelsea are likely to see more of the ball and can control the tempo of the game accordingly.

Ben Chilwell has been the first choice left-back for Thomas Tuchel in the last two games and has scored a goal in each of the games. His goal against Brentford proved to be the winner for the Blues. He has had a high xG in both matches and has also performed his defensive duties well.

Chelsea have their own injury concerns as Lukaku and Werner are set to be out for a couple of weeks. Lukaku twisted his ankle while Werner suffered a hamstring injury as both were forced off the pitch before halftime in their Champions League clash. In their absence, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Kai Havertz impressed and combined for Chelsea’s third goal against Malmo. Both are expected to play against Norwich and have a golden opportunity to stake a claim for themselves in the side.

Norwich are at the bottom of the table and have struggled to get going since their return to the top-flight this season. The Canaries are without a win from their eight games, have a goal difference of negative 14 and have scored just once in their last five matches. The Canaries played out a goalless draw with Brighton, which was their second consecutive goalless stalemate after sharing the spoils with Burnley before the international break.

Norwich had a total of 15 attempts on goal against Brighton but only managed to have three shots on target. Norwich have failed to score goals and have only found the back of the net twice. In order to get better results from their games, it is vital that they score more goals. They need to be more effective in front of goal and maintain the pressure on the opposition goalkeeper. Chelsea were seen to be defensively weak in their last game against Brentford and Norwich can take advantage of the same fact.

Norwich have been able to salvage two points so far in the season and they need to pick up the pace to avoid an immediate return to the EFL Championship. Chelsea on the other hand are favourites to win this clash with the form that they are in right now.

Chelsea predicted starting lineup: Mendy, Azpilicueta, Chalobah, Christensen, James, Jorginho, Loftus-Cheek, Chilwell, Hudson-Odoi, Mount, Havertz.

Norwich City predicted starting lineup: Krul, Hanley, Kabak, Gibson, Aarons, Lees-Melou, McLean, Normann, Giannoulis, Pukki, Sargent.