Against All Odds: Chelsea to hand out Capital punishment in Wales

Chelsea certainly have the firepower to progress

Chelsea travel to Swansea for the second leg of their Capital One Cup semi-final and Paul Robinson thinks they can produce a great escape and still make it to Wembley.

Aston Villa couldn't overturn their deficit for us yesterday but I'm still not convinced that we are going to have a Bradford v Swansea final so I'm turning my attentions to Wales where the Swans are a very skinny price to progress.

I was one of Michael Laudrup's biggest critics earlier on in the season as I felt they were very fortunate in their first few games and that when their luck ran out, they'd struggle. While they did have a rough patch for a while, the former Danish international has managed to get things back on track and they currently sit ninth in the league and are on the verge of a cup final.

The Swans won 2-0 at Stamford Bridge in the first leg of this tie but that scoreline did flatter them somewhat and I wouldn't be confident of their defence standing up to the likes of Juan Mata and Eden Hazard again. They've won just two of their last half dozen at the Liberty Stadium and kept only one clean sheet in that period. They also required late goals to avoid defeat against Aston Villa and Arsenal.

Chelsea may have missed out on landing Pep Guardiola but Rafa Benitez is slowly staking his claim to be appointed on a permanent basis and surely even the most vocal Chelsea fans will give the Spaniard some respite if he can take them to Wembley.

While they trail 2-0, the Blues' recent away form shows that they are more than capable of turning this kind of deficit around. They have won their last six on the road, with the scorelines reading 1-3, 1-5, 0-1, 1-2, 1-5 and 0-4, and those games included tricky trips to Goodison Park and The Britannia Stadium.

Whoever Rafa chooses up front out of Demba Ba and Fernando Torres will have the in-form trio of Juan Mata, Eden Hazard and Frank Lampard in support and the Chelsea team just screams goals away from the pressures of Stamford Bridge.

Swansea are clearly in the box-seat ahead of the match tonight but I can't have them to qualify at around the 1.422/5 mark and I think those tuning into Sky Sports One at 19:45 could well be in for a surprise. That's why, at the prices, I have to make Swansea to qualify my lay of the day.

Recommended Bet
Lay Swansea to qualify v Chelsea @ 1.422/5

2013 P/L (1pt each bet)

Wagered: 22 pts
Returned: 18.92 pts
P/L - 3.08 pts (after commission)
(2012 P/L: + 9.60 pts)