Chelsea well placed as the race for the Premier League title hots up

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West London Sport recently took an in-depth look at Chelsea and their performance against Hull City in what was ultimately a fairly solid win.

The lovely reality is, it was just the latest in a string of satisfying results for Chelsea, who have performed up to expectations in the 2013-14 Premier League.

But with 21 matches played and the midway point of the season now a few weeks behind us, it’s getting to where supporters can’t help but look forward and wonder whether Chelsea are on the path to a league title in 2014?

In any season, this is a question without a concrete answer. Injuries, player transactions, surprising outcomes, and other variables can all come into play. But in attacking the question ourselves, we’ll look at three major indicators: the remaining schedule, the betting odds, and the strength of the opposition.

Remaining fixtures

The full schedule can be viewed at ESPN FC if you’d like to go match-by-match, but here we’ll just look at the remaining significant hurdles on the Blues’ upcoming fixture list.

And really, only three matches stand out as true tests: February 3rd against Man City at the Etihad, February 22 against Arsenal at Stamford Bridge, and April 26th against Liverpool at Anfield.

Aside from these matches, it’s reasonable to suggest that Chelsea will be favoured in each of its remaining fixtures. The same will be true of the home match against Arsenal and possibly even the road trip to Anfield.

Betting odds

With a glance at Betfair news‘ football betting section, we see, as expected, that Chelsea are right in the thick of the race. Man City has had the top odds to win the league all season long, and that hasn’t changed.

But with 7/2 odds to win, Chelsea are the second favourite, still ahead of the mighty Arsenal, the surprising Liverpool, and the bitterly disappointing Manchester United. Should the Blues pull off the early February win at Etihad Stadium, they’ll probably take over as betting favourites.

Strength of the opposition

We’re at the point in the season where barring miraculous surprises, we’re down to three or four teams. Man City and Arsenal are the true challengers to Chelsea.

Liverpool are hanging around, too, while the top competing clubs have difficult matches remaining. Man City have to travel to White Hart Lane to play Tottenham, face Chelsea in the aforementioned Etihad match, and still have matches at Arsenal, at Newcastle, and at Old Trafford against United.

Arsenal still have to visit Tottenham and Chelsea, and it will face United and City, both at Emirates Stadium. Put simply, the strength of the opposition is great but it may well be that Chelsea have the best-looking remaining schedule, but the Blues’ chances look good at the moment.

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