Florent Malouda tips Chelsea to finish above Spurs and win on Sunday and makes two bold Erling Haaland claims

In the third part of Ladbrokes’ exclusive interview with Florent Malouda, the Frenchman has backed former club Chelsea to finish above Tottenham this season and win Sunday’s London derby as well as discussing Manchester City striker Erling Haaland.

You can read part one in which he shares his thoughts on the current Chelsea and Manchester United teams, Conor Gallagher, Jose Mourinho and the greatest footballer he has played alongside.

Part two sees Malouda talk about Chelsea’s 2012 Champions League triumph and the 2006 World Cup with France, with the exclusive interview with Ladbrokes coming ahead of the launch of the 5-A-Side bet for Sunday’s mouth-watering clash between Chelsea and Tottenham at Stamford Bridge.

Forget what the odds say; Chelsea will finish above Tottenham this season and beat them 3-1 on Sunday

The odds say Tottenham are more likely to finish higher in the league than Chelsea and that’s a big concern – but I understand why.

“The stability and the fact Antonio Conte has improved his squad from last season based on what he understood, identifying areas he knows he needs to improve.

“Tottenham seem in a very strong place right now, largely down to the manager and the job he’s done in terms of recruitment.

A day closer to #CheTot! 🤝 pic.twitter.com/4nEGG9Agxz

— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) August 12, 2022

“Chelsea have brought in some big players, Raheem Sterling being a great signing in particular, but there are still a lot of players who want to leave the club and this still hasn’t been sorted out.

“The club haven’t been able to move players on yet and the season is already under way. Even the manager was worried in pre-season about things.

“But Chelsea will always be Chelsea and they’ll be competing for trophies because they always do. I think overall, they will finish above Tottenham.

“It’s definitely something I wish happens but also when I take my Chelsea hat off, knowing the ambition of this Chelsea team; they want to succeed – they want to prove something and I believe they can have a good season.

“I will go with Chelsea to beat Tottenham 3-1 this weekend. I think there’ll be a lot of goals in this game and I’d expect Tottenham to score but I’m backing my old side to win 3-1.

Haaland gets 25+ goals this season but it won’t be enough to win the Champions League

The signing of the season so far in the Premier League is easy for me: it’s definitely Erling Haaland.

“I think he’s going to have a huge impact on the Premier League as a whole, not just Manchester City. He’s a great signing for the division, although I wish he’d have signed for Chelsea!

“I expect Haaland to score more than 25 goals this season. I can’t put another number on it but that would be my expectation from him this season. You’ve really got to worry for every defender in the division.

“The fact that every Man City player wants to provide him with chances, to feed him with goalscoring opportunities, that’s what’s scary. You can feel in that squad that everybody wants him to score.

“When you arrive at a club like that and you instantly feel the trust from every single one of your team-mates, you are only going to achieve great things.

“It’s almost like you feel as though Manchester City is where he belongs. He’s young, he’s talented, he has a great manager and the frightening thought is he’s probably going to improve his game.

“It’s so funny, you spend so long talking about Erling Haaland, you forget about the rest of those forwards.

“Jack Grealish, Phil Foden, Riyad Mahrez, Kevin De Bruyne… Erling Haaland is an addition to this already impressive team.

“It will be very interesting to see the records he might break in the Premier League because the talent and potential is there for everyone to see.

“Does the arrival of Erling Haaland win Manchester City the Champions League? I’m not so sure about that.

“There are so many great teams in Europe right now, the likes of Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Liverpool are always going to be up there.

“Chelsea have always been consistent in Europe and so for that reason, I wouldn’t make Man City favourites for the Champions League.

“I would say they definitely win the league but there are so many factors in Europe, it’s too hard say Haaland wins them the European cup as well.

2022 World Cup

“France will head to Qatar as one of the favourites to win the World Cup because we’re reigning champions.

“But everyone will know that doesn’t count for much at that level, especially when you look at our Nations League results (two defeats and two draws from four games). You can’t take anything for granted.

“If we manage to keep our top players fit, we will be favourites to win. This is so important.

“We have top players like Kylian Mbappe but recently we saw that Paul Pogba was injured, so that’s going to be a huge factor. N’Golo Kante, too, needs to stay fit.

“France, with the quality and characters they have, want to prove to the world they are the ones to beat.

“But the timing of the World Cup is so different it will be new for everyone, so no one can say for sure exactly what is going to happen.

“We don’t know what performance levels are going to be like at this time of the year and a lot can happen at club level between now and the tournament starting.”

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