Football betting tips: Premier League
1.5pts Enzo Fernandez 2+ fouls committed at 11/5 (Ladbrokes, Coral)
1pt Nottingham Forest to keep a clean sheet at 5/1 (General)
0.5pt Forest to win to nil at 9/1 (bet365, BetVictor)
It would be a barefaced lie to say I wasn't seething last weekend that having written the very words "ENZO FERNANDEZ will want to deliver a captain's performance" he duly did exactly that by scoring and winning Man of the Match against Leeds at Wembley to help book Chelsea's place in the FA Cup final.
The trouble was I was backing him to be shown a card as part of that game's This Week's Acca Bet Builder, which he wasn't.
He did near enough everything else though, being fouled on four occasions and committing three himself, scoring with one of his two shots on target and creating a mammoth 0.47 expected assists (xA) for his team-mates.
It really was an all-action display worthy of the award he received at full-time.
At 7/2 I'll pivot from the card angle for the visit of Nottingham Forest, and take FERNANDEZ 2+ FOULS COMMITTED at 11/5.
Like most of his colleagues he was anonymous in the latter weeks of Liam Rosenior's reign, quite literally in fact during a two-game ban imposed by his former manager for "unprofessional" media comments.
Last Sunday they all rather embarrassingly reappeared, with Fernandez the best example.
His 9/2 price for 1+ assists is tempting - the Argentine World Cup-winner has scored 14 and provided nine assists in 56 club appearances this term, stretching back to the Club World Cup - but one match isn't enough to trust that Chelsea have turned things around under Calum McFarlane.
In Forest they meet a team in great form, too.
Vitor Pereira's side beat Aston Villa 1-0 in the first leg of their Europa League semi-final on Thursday to make it four straight wins and nine unbeaten (W5 D4) as they look to secure Premier League safety.
They've earned huge plaudits for scoring nine goals across their last two league games against Burnley and Sunderland, but it's defensively that they've made vast improvements.
Forest haven't conceded more than once in any of their last 10 matches, keeping five clean sheets.
1x2-wise however, with the visitors facing a European semi-final three days later and Chelsea still being incredibly volatile, I'd rather leave the shorter prices alone but I will have a swing at FOREST CLEAN SHEET and FOREST TO WIN TO NIL.
Four of their five recent victories have come in this manner, while the Blues have failed to score in six of their last eight matches - the two exceptions being FA Cup ties against Port Vale (7-0) and Leeds (1-0).
At a respective 5/1 and 9/1, they look like runners at a Stamford Bridge that will get edgy if the hosts aren't able to score early.
Odds correct at 15:30 BST (1/5/26)
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