Chelsea welcome Crystal Palace to Stamford Bridge in a London derby encounter.
Victory could see Chelsea stay tenth, whilst Palace will stay 12th with a win but move level on points with their hosts.
Team News
Joao Felix is suspended for Chelsea after he was red carded in Thursday’s defeat at Fulham.
Denis Zakaria is ruled out with a quad injury suffered at Craven Cottage, which saw the Swiss midfielder substituted in the 56th minute.
Edouard Mendy (shoulder/finger), Ben Chilwell (thigh), Ruben Loftus-Cheek (calf), N’Golo Kante, Raheem Sterling (both hamstring), Christian Pulisic, Reece James, Wesley Fofana and Armando Broja (all knee) remain absent.
Palace could welcome Tyrick Mitchell back into contention after he missed their last three matches through suspension.
James McArthur (groin) and Nathan Ferguson (foot) both remain absent.
When is Kick-Off?
Chelsea host Palace at Stamford Bridge on Sunday 15 January at 2pm GMT, albeit untelevised live in UK but will be available in various foreign countries.
Stat Attack
- Chelsea are unbeaten in each of their last ten league meetings against Palace (W10).
- Palace are winless in their last five league visits to Chelsea (L5).
- Chelsea have scored nine goals in their last three home games against Palace without conceding (W3).
- Kai Havertz has scored more league goals than any of Chelsea’s other non-English players this season, with the German having scored four goals in 17 appearances.
- Five of Wilfried Zaha’s six league goals this season were scored on his right foot.
Prediction
After two recently weak performances against Manchester City in different competitions, Chelsea again were incredibly wasteful against Fulham on Thursday evening on top of defensive errors, which simply has to change if they want to halt this slump and get their campaign back on track.
It is also worth noting that the battle for European qualification is currently beginning to spread out and with a ten-point gap to fourth-placed Newcastle, this match is now realistically a must-win if Chelsea want to chase a Champions League spot next season.
Palace meanwhile are sat comfortably in midtable and out of both cup competitions so can now focus solely on finishing as high as they can this season, yet haven’t exactly started 2023 well with two defeats so I do hope to see them come out fighting here given their quality in attack.
Stamford Bridge though has often been Palace’s Achilles heel in terms of form but with Chelsea out of form, this is a huge chance for them to snatch a result if they can tighten up defensively and won’t be the first time they have sprung a surprise when the Blues have struggled.
Prediction: Chelsea 1-1 Crystal Palace
Result: Chelsea 1-0 Crystal Palace
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