Fresh from their first-ever Club World Cup success, Chelsea return to the Premier League with a London derby against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Saturday evening with kickoff at 18:00.
Crystal Palace made a good start to the Premier League under Patrick Vieira with the club staying in the top-half and around the middle of the table for most of the first half of the campaign.
However, Palace have been on a downward spiral in the recent weeks with the capital club winning just one of their last eight Premier League games, picking up four draws and suffering three defeats in the process and are coming off back-to-back draws against Norwich City 1-1 and Brentford 0-0.
As a result the Eagles have dropped to 13th on the table with 26 points collected from 24 matches, but they are just three points off the top-half and are some nine points above the relegation zone.
With a possibility of being drawn to the relegation battle, if they drop points in their next couple of matches, Patrick Vieira’s side will be looking to end their slump in this match, but will need to work on their home form as they are currently on a seven-match winless run at Selhurst Park. Also they have struggled in the finishing recently, failing to score in four of the last seven home matches. Palace also face an uphill task on Saturday of having to overcome a highly-motivated Chelsea for the three points.
Indeed, the Blues head into the Saturday’s clash brimming with confidence after being crowned champions of the world for the first time in their history in Abu Dhabi. Chelsea overcame Palmeiras with 2-1 victory after extra time in the final of the Club World Club the land another pieces of silverware this season, having won the Champions League Super Cup earlier this season.
The Club World Cup success has injected momentum into their form now as the World Champions boast a five match unbeaten run across all competitions claiming one draw and four consecutive victories in the run.
The Blues need the momentum for their Champions League bid and they are still mathematically within the reach of Man City thus they need the confidence to continue picking up points in the league to add on the previous 2-0 win against Tottenham in their last top-flight match. Although, it may be too late to over City in the title race as they now sit 16 points behind the leaders, albeit with a game in hand.
Crystal Palace vs Chelsea head to head
Both sides have met in 24 encounters since 1994 with Chelsea claiming 19 victories while Palace have claimed four victories and there have been one draw.
- Chelsea 3-0 Crystal Palace 14/08/21
- Crystal Palace 1-4 Chelsea 10/04/21
- Chelsea 4-0 Crystal Palace 03/10/20
- Crystal Palace 2-3 Chelsea 07/07/10
- Chelsea 2-0 Crystal Palace 09/11/19
Home
- Brentford 0-0 Crystal Palace
- Norwich 1-1 Crystal Palace
- Crystal Palace 2-0 Hartlepool
- Crystal Palace 1-3 Liverpool
- Brighton 1-1 Crystal Palace
Away
- Chelsea 2-1 Palmeiras
- Al Hilal Rijad 0-1 Chelsea
- Chelsea 2-1 Plymouth
- Chelsea 2-0 Tottenham
- Brighton 1-1 Chelsea
Crystal Palace team news
Palace will be without Nathan Ferguson due to injury while Cheikhou Kouyate is a doubt.
Chelsea team news
Chelsea will still miss Ben Chilwell and Reece James who continue to recover from injuries while both Edouard Mendy and Andreas Christensen will miss due to testing positive for COVID-19.
Prediction and odds
- Chelsea win
- Both sides to score
- Goals over 2.5
