Roma v Chievo
15:00
Roma were narrowly beaten 1-0 at Juve last time out and as a result they now trail the league leaders by seven points. Nonetheless, six points from the Rome derby, a visit from Milan and a trip to Juve represents a decent return and they face an easier task here as they host Chievo. Having said that, the visitors’ form has improved in recent weeks as they’ve won their last two at Palermo and at home to Sampdoria in their last game to move up to 10th.
The victory over Milan made it 11 home wins on the bounce for Roma and they’ve scored at least three times in eight of these. They’ve won seven of eight unbeaten home games against teams between 7th and 12th since the start of last season, keeping a clean sheet in half of these and leading at the break in five. What’s more, five of their seven victories were by more than one goal and given their strong scoring form, we fancy them to cover the -1 handicap.
Chievo have lost half of their eight road games so far and in fact 14 of 27 away since the start of last season. They’ve lost seven of nine winless trips to top-four sides since 2014/15, failing to score in six of these, trailing at the break in six, while six of the seven defeats were by more than one goal. The fact that Roma have kept just four clean sheets in their last 12 puts us off the win to nil, but since they’ve led at the break in five of their last six at home, we’re also going to back the W/W double.
Recommendations: Roma -1 Handicap at 1.83 Roma/Roma HT/FT at 1.85
