IT’S not difficult to work out why lost his job at Stamford Bridge, have scored fewer goals than has hammered home for Manchester City this season.
The blundering Blues have only found the net on 29 occasions in the top flight which is one less than the mighty Norwegian has amassed for the defending champions.
It has been a painful experience for Chelsea fans as their club has fallen from grace. They have failed to score in their last three matches and are now 11th in the table.
Defensively they remain reasonably solid but the lack of potency up front leaves them with a mountain to climb against Real Madrid in tonight’s Champions League quarter-final, first leg at the Bernabeu.
Interim boss Frank Lampard is hoping for a strong finish to a season everyone connected to the club would rather forget as he would love a second crack at running Chelsea on a permanent basis.
But Carlo Ancelotti, one of Lampard’s managers during his glorious playing career at the Bridge, will have other ideas and he could even return to the King’s Road if his own tenure at Real expires at the end of the season.
Madrid have been patchy at times this term but they recently battered Barcelona in the Copa del Rey, winning 4-0 at the Nou Camp, after walloping Liverpool 6-2 on aggregate in the Champions League round of 16.
This evening’s affair pitches the defending champions against the 2021 winners, but Chelsea are miles off the form they celebrated a couple of years ago.
Real are crying out to be backed at 3/4 with BetUK and a home win by over one goal is solid at 2/1 with Paddy Power.
Karim Benzema may be in the twilight of his career at 35 but he’s scored hat-tricks in two of his last three matches.
The World Cup winner with France is 16/5 with to open the scoring with his 27th goal this season and 11/10 with bet365 to find the net at any time.
• 17/10 Serie A champions elect Napoli are a cautious choice to win tonight’s other Champions League quarter-final at AC Milan after losing 4-0 to the Rossoneri a couple of weeks ago (SpreadEx)
• 11/1 Jannick Sinner cashed the each-way part of our bet on him to triumph at the Miami Open and is worth a similar wager on the clay at this week’s Monte Carlo Open (bet365)
