Crystal Palace welcome Chelsea to Selhurst Park in a tasty London derby, as the Eagles look to salvage a top ten finish whilst Chelsea push for top four.
A win for Palace could put them back firmly into the mix for a top ten finish, whilst Chelsea can leapfrog Leicester into third for at least a few hours.
Team News
Embed from Getty ImagesMartin Kelly won’t be risked for Crystal Palace after returning to training from a calf injury at the start of this week.
Jeffrey Schlupp and James Tomkins remain out with unspecified injuries.
Chelsea could be without N’Golo Kante after the French midfielder was substituted with a hamstring injury in Saturday’s win over Watford.
Fikayo Tomori and Mateo Kovacic remain sidelined with respective muscle and Achilles injuries, although both players could be fit for Saturday’s trip to Bramall Lane.
Marco van Ginkel remains out with a long-term knee injury.
Stat Attack
- Crystal Palace are winless in four of their last six meetings against Chelsea, including defeats in their last four clashes (W2, L4)
- Chelsea have lost just one of their last five trips to Selhurst Park (W4, L1).
- Five of Chelsea’s last six goals against Palace have come after half-time.
- No Spanish Premier League player this season has won more aerial battles than Chelsea’s Cesar Azpilicueta, who has won 83 aerial battles in 31 appearances.
- Neither first-choice goalkeepers for Palace and Chelsea have saved a league penalty this season.
Prediction
Following a bright restart to the season, Palace have just lacked that clinical touch needed to finish chances because they deserve to be challenging for seventh, instead of letting their season fade and potentially hurt momentum going into next season.
Chelsea meanwhile just crushed Watford with such simplicity that it is hard to look past them for victory here, although I do think that Palace might just give them more of a test than the Hornets did.
Prediction: Crystal Palace 1-2 Chelsea
Result: Crystal Palace 2-3 Chelsea