Chelsea made it two wins from two in UEFA Convention League matches on Thursday after facing a winless Panathinaikos side in Greece. The Blues are one of several teams to have won their first game of the contest and would likely pick a second, although coach Enzo Maresca will show up with a circled team for the league stage. Cole Palmer was once overlooked by the Convention League team to control his minutes, even though a handful of their best players could be in the mix in European games right now.
Here’s what you need to know before you tune in.
monitor and odds
- Life: Thursday October 24 | Age: 12:45 pm Eastern Time
- Location: Athens Olympic Stadium – Marousi, Greece
- Monitor: Supreme+
- Odd: Panathinaikos +490; Draw +320; Chelsea -180
Arguments
Regardless of the 2-1 defeat to Liverpool on Sunday, there is enough to be positive about at Chelsea as Enzo Maresca adapts well to his new activity. They have four wins from their first eight Premier League games, are within striking distance of a top-four spot and sit second in the league’s goalscoring table. Although Cole Palmer’s six goals come in games at an important stage of his Premier League, he is not the only one involved in a good start to the season.
Maresca will likely rotate among his team on Thursday and will be hoping for strong results in a performance that would mirror the 4-2 matchday one win over Gent. Chelsea had four other goalscorers (Renato Veiga, Pedro Neto, Christopher Nkunku and Kiernan Dewsbury-Corridor) during a dominant performance and, although they were shaky defensively, that game could be the style for Thursday’s trip to Panathinaikos.
projected alignment
Chelsea: Jorgensen, Disasi, Adarabioyo, Badiashile, Veiga, Casadei, Dewsbury-Corridor, Neto, Felix, Mudryk, Nkunku
Prediction
Maresca will rightly assume that a circled team can carry out the activity on Thursday, so expect a comfortable win for Chelsea as they begin to free themselves from competition in the Convention League. Choose: Panathinaikos 1, Chelsea 4
