Overview
When Chelsea beat Brighton 3-1 at the end of September, the Londoners had gone nearly a month without knowing the taste of victory in both the Premier League and UEFA Champions League. The pressure at that time seemed to be increasing on coach Enzo Maresca's shoulders.
However, a series of 3 consecutive victories before the international break - against Benfica in the European arena, along with Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in the domestic league - helped The Blues quickly regain their form before the away match at Ajax.
This weekend, Chelsea ended Ange Postecoglou's short reign at City Ground with a 3-0 victory, thanks to goals from Josh Acheampong, Pedro Neto and Reece James.
Notably, Acheampong (19 years old) became the second teenager to score for Chelsea in the Premier League this season, after Estevao in the match against Liverpool. The Blues have become the team with the most teenagers scoring this season.
Chelsea's young squad is also shouldering a lot of responsibility in the Champions League. In fact, they are the only team that has not used any players aged 30 and over in the tournament this season. In the history of English clubs, only two teams have gone at least three games without a player aged 30 or over. They were Liverpool in the 2002-2003 season and Tottenham in the 2016-2019 season (both 6 matches).
Chelsea's Champions League group stage campaign started with a 1-3 defeat to Bayern Munich. However, a narrow victory over Benfica helped them maintain their impressive form at home in the European arena.
Chelsea have lost just two of their last 12 Champions League games at Stamford Bridge (W9 D1). And both of those defeats came against Real Madrid in the quarter-finals of the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 seasons.
The Blues are also unbeaten in their last 12 home matches in the group stage of the tournament (W8 D4), since losing to Valencia under Frank Lampard in September 2019.
In the upcoming match, Enzo Fernandez is likely to return after being absent in the victory over Nottingham Forest. Meanwhile, Moises Caicedo, his familiar partner in midfield, has made 9 tackles in the Champions League this season. This figure is only behind Nathaniel Brown (11, Frankfurt) and Lukas Lerager (10, Copenhagen).
While Chelsea are 18th in the Champions League table, Ajax have even dropped to second place after two consecutive defeats to Inter (0-2) and Marseille (04) In the domestic arena, the Dutch team is not much better when they are fourth at Eredivisie after a humiliating 0-2 loss to AZ Alkmaar last weekend.
Head-to-head record
This will be the third time Chelsea and Ajax have faced each other in European competition, after two dramatic encounters in the 2019-2020 Champions League group stage.
In the first leg of that season, The Blues won at least 1-0 at Johan Cruyff Arena. However, the return match at Stamford Bridge became one of the most spectacular score chases in the history of the Champions League, when the two teams drew 4-4.
Ajax have not won in their last 11 European matches against English sides (D2 L9), since a 1-0 win over Tottenham in April 2019.
Score prediction: Chelsea 2-1 Ajax
The match between Chelsea and Ajax takes place at 2:00 am on October 23 (Vietnam time)
