Chelsea eye two wins out of two in UEFA Convention League play on Thursday after they face a winless Panathinaikos in Greece. The Blues are certainly one of a number of groups to win their opening sport of the competitors and can be closely favored to choose up a second, regardless that supervisor Enzo Maresca can be working with a rotated squad for the league section. Cole Palmer was omitted from the Convention League squad to handle his minutes, although a handful of their high gamers may very well be within the combine in European play this week.

This is what you should know earlier than tuning in.

Methods to watch and odds

• Date: Thursday, Oct. 24 | Time: 12:45 p.m. ET
• Location: Athens Olympic Stadium — Marousi, Greece
• Watch: Paramount+
• Odds: Panathinaikos +490; Draw +320; Chelsea -180

Storylines

Regardless of a 2-1 loss to Liverpool on Sunday, there’s loads to be optimistic about at Chelsea as Enzo Maresca settles in properly to his new job. They’ve 4 wins from their first eight video games within the Premier League, inside touching distance of a top-four spot and rank second within the league’s goalscoring charts. Although Cole Palmer’s six objectives play a giant half of their Premier League depend, he’s not the one one having fun with a powerful begin to the season.

Maresca will seemingly rotate by means of his staff on Thursday and anticipate sturdy ends in a efficiency that might replicate Matchday 1’s 4-2 win over Gent. Chelsea had 4 totally different goalscorers – Renato Veiga, Pedro Neto, Christopher Nkunku and Kiernan Dewsbury-Corridor – throughout a dominant efficiency, and although they have been defensively shaky, that sport will seemingly be the mannequin for Thursday’s journey to Panathinaikos.

Projected lineup

Chelsea: Jorgensen, Disasi, Adarabioyo, Badiashile, Veiga, Casadei, Dewsbury-Corridor, Neto, Felix, Mudryk, Nkunku

Prediction

Maresca will rightly guess {that a} rotated facet can get the job carried out on Thursday, so anticipate a snug win for Chelsea as they start to separate themselves from the competitors within the Convention League. Choose: Panathinaikos 1, Chelsea 4