Chennaiyin vs Kerala Blasters: Preview and Prediction
Chennaiyin will do everything possible this season to fix the bad feeling of the way they missed the play-off in the last two seasons. A “rain” of goals and Chennaiyin’s sensational 7-3 triumph over NorthEast United marked the previous round of the Indian Super League.
With this victory, Thomas Brdaric’s men put an end to two consecutive heavy defeats and heralded better days, thus keeping the seventh position in the table with 13 points on their account – just two points less than the sixth-placed Goa.
Kerala Blasters, although they finished the regular season barely in the fourth position, made a big surprise in the play-off, reaching the final. They were on the verge of their first Indian Super League title, but Kerala gambled their lead and lost on penalties to Hyderabad in the end.
The popular “The Tuskers” currently occupy the fifth position in the table with 18 points won, which is not so bad considering that they had a very bad start to this year’s edition of the ISL.
Current Form
Chennaiyin scored seven goals in their last match against NorthEast United
Chennaiyin recorded a colossal 7-3 win while playing away in a clash against NorthEast United of the Indian Super League played on December 10. During the last 10 meetings of Chennaiyin, the visitors had the edge winning on 2 occasions, with the hosting side merely recording 2 victories.
Only one of the last 10 encounters ended in a draw. Each one of the preceding five Chennaiyin games resulted in over 2.5 goals, with both sides scoring in all of those. The squad turned out incapable of limiting their opponents to no goals in any of the matches throughout the period, while they managed to find the back of the net at least once on every occasion. The last 5 outings were marked by very high-scoring numbers, with a total of 31 goals.
Kerala Blasters previously faced Bengaluru on Sunday and the final score was a hard-fought 3-2 victory at home. Presently the club is enjoying a streak of five victories in succession. The home crowd, usually referred to as the “12th player”, have failed to significantly impact Kerala Blasters’ recent ten meetings, as they ended in 4 home triumphs and 5 away wins.
Only one of the previous 10 meetings concluded in a draw. Looking at the squad’s previous five clashes, it becomes apparent that three featured over 2.5 goals and two witnessed goals at both ends. Throughout these, Kerala Blasters’ efforts paid off as the team managed to prevent goals in their net three times and scored a minimum of one goal in the process. There were a total of 14 goals scored across the team’s five most recent outings.
Head to Head Record
When Chennaiyin last faced Kerala Blasters on the pitch, the game finished with a score of 3-0 to Kerala Blasters. The two clubs met each other on the 26th of February 2022. Kerala Blasters are enjoying a streak of two back-to-back wins and have not experienced a defeat in four clashes.
In the course of the last 10 encounters, performing at home did not play any major role in determining the outcomes, considering the 3 home victories and 2 away triumphs. A draw was the most common outcome in the last few matches, with that being the result in all 5 of the last 10.
Of their last five meetings, three resulted in over 2.5 goals and two had both sides scoring. Throughout the extent of this period, Chennaiyin kept a clean sheet one time and Kerala Blasters managed to prevent goals in their net on three occasions. The most recent five games resulted in an average score of 3.40 goals.
Team News
Anirudh Thapa will kiss the game as he is still recovering from injury
Chennaiyin will be without the services of Jiteshwor Singh, Ninthoi Meetei, and captain Anirudh Thapa as all three are still in the recovery room recovering from injuries. The good news is that left-back Narayan Das was on the bench last weekend against NorthEast United after he missed four league matches due to an “undisclosed” injury.
Unlike Chennaiyin, Kerala Blasters come into this match with a clean bill of health, which means that coach Ivan Vukomanovic will have a complete team at his disposal for this important match.
The Serbian manager should not make too many changes to the starting XI due to the great form of his team in recent weeks. Even more, the same XI that started against Bengaluru is expected.
Predicted Starting XIs
Chennaiyin (4-5-1): Debjit Majumder; Mohammed Rafique, Fallou Diagne, Gurmukh Singh, Aakash Sangwan; Edwin Sydney Vanspaul, Julius Duker, Prasanth K, Nasser El Khayati, Rahim Ali; Petar Sliskovic
Kerala Blasters (4-4-2): Prabhsukhan Singh Gill; Sandeep Singh, Hormipam Ruivah, Marko Leskovic, Nishu Kumar; Rahul KP, Jeakson Singh, Ivan Kalyuzhnyi, Sahal Abdul Samad; Adrian Luna, Dimitrios Diamantakos
Prediction
After losing in their prior two outings, Chennaiyin returned to winning ways in a spectacular way as they got the better of NorthEast United in a crazy contest. Chennaiyin were 7-3 winners and will hope to build on that success but it will not be easy in this clash with Kerala Blasters.
The away side made it five straight wins as they overcame Bengaluru last time out and owing to their impressive run of form, they have to be favoured to claim another success in this one.