Chelsea v Leeds EFL Cup Tips: Back the Blues to win a goalfest at 11/5

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Wednesday 9 September, 20:00
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Alonso has his eye on the EFL Cup

If Xabi Alonso is to re-establish Chelsea as a Premier League force, he will want their home to become a fortress. Chelsea need to banish Sunday's defeat to Arsenal and start rebuilding momentum so expect them to take this League Cup tie against Leeds seriously.

The Blues have the squad to compete in every tournament they enter, especially as they do not have European football this season, and should be outright contenders in this competition at 6/17.00 on the Betfair Sportsbook.

Chelsea v Leeds Match Odds - Blues fancied to maintain strong home record

Both sides have made a decent start to the season, with Chelsea taking six points and Leeds five from their opening three matches in the Premier League. The Blues' 100 per cent start was halted at champions Arsenal on Sunday while for the Whites an opening weekend win was followed by two draws, most recently at Brighton, which is a tough place to visit these days.

Stamford Bridge is not a happy hunting ground for Leeds, with Chelsea unbeaten in nine home games against the Whites in all competitions (W7 D2) since a 0-2 Premier League defeat in December 1999 under Gianluca Vialli. Will this be Leeds' moment to record a first win there this century?

In the Betfair Sportsbook match odds, Daniel Farke's men are 15/44.75 with the draw 3/14.00 and Chelsea 8/131.61. Leeds won at Forest in the last round but a trip to Chelsea, who were 2-0 victors at home to Luton, is a different order of road test.

Chelsea have a rich pedigree in the EFL Cup, progressing from 14 of their last 15 EFL Cup third round ties, failing only in 2022-23 against Manchester City, a 0-2 defeat.

Expect goals in Chelsea v Leeds - Back Blues to outscore Whites

We expect Chelsea to win this tie, so the question is, how to pump up their price? We could back them on the handicap -1 but their two league wins this season were by a single goal margin, which would kill that bet, so we don't want to risk it.

Chelsea have conceded at least two goals in all three of their Premier League matches. Their only clean sheet this term was against Luton in the previous round of this comeptition.

Top-flight Leeds have scored in every game they've played this season and should be able to expose the Blues' work-in-progress defence to get on the scoresheet here. We will back Chelsea and both teams to score at 11/53.20.

Chelsea v Leeds Bet Builder - Back another fast start

In each of their three Premier League games in 2026/27, Chelsea have scored inside the first five minutes. That's the kind of trend that has to come to an end soon but, until it does, should be backed to continue.

Under the lights, with the crowd behind them and smarting from that defeat on Sunday, it is not inconceivable that Chelsea will fly out of the blocks against Leeds.

Back another early Blues goal by taking Chelsea to be in the lead at 10 minutes at 5/16.00.

In terms of who will score the goals, it is always a difficult one to answer in this competition, as Alonso and Farke may both be tempted to make changes.

Danny Welbeck struck in the last round and could get another opportunity here. Then again, against Premier League opposition, Alonso may want his attacking front three of Morgan Rogers, Cole Palmer and Joao Pedro to get more minutes together. The latter pair both scored when the teams met here in the league in February.

We are going to leave the goalscorer markets alone and instead combine our Chelsea and BTTS bet with the Blues being up after 10 minutes.

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