Bayern Leverkusen v Chelsea

When these two sides met back in September Andre-Villas-Boas had managed to carry his aura of invincibility from Porto to Chelsea. At Stamford Bridge the hosts had 12 shots on target - no team has managed more in the Champions League this season - and ran out comfortable 2-0 winners. But an awful lot has changed since then.

The young Chelsea manager is suddenly having to field questions about his future after an alarming run of three league defeats in the last four. Bayern Leverkusen, for their part, are an entirely different proposition at the BayArena. The Germans have won both their Champions League clashes on their own patch, 2-1 against Valencia and 2-0 when Genk came to town. Those two victories have left Robin Dutt’s side second in the table, two points behind Chelsea, with an excellent chance of progression.

Whereas Leverkusen have won five of their last seven at the BayArena, the Blues are winless in their last three on the road with two draws and a loss. After their domination of the Germans in London, and with a determination to stop the rot, I can’t see Chelsea suffering another defeat. However, another draw (12/5 SkyBet) looks on the cards, and may be an acceptable result in the circumstances.

Chelsea will be feeling the pressure brought about by recent poor results. They were unable to hold onto slender leads when they visited Valenia and Genk in Group E. Leverkusen are feisty, capable opponents with plenty to play for; I can’t see the visitors improving on a record of two clean sheets in their last 11 games in all competitions. With that in mind, I think we can confidently modify our bet to a ‘score draw’ at best odds of 15/4 with VictorChandler.