Date: Saturday 19th
February 2022
Venue: Selhurst Park
Kick-off: 15:00 GMT
Our first
Premier League game as Club World Champions sees us travel the short distance
to Selhurst Park for a 3 o’clock kick-off against Crystal Palace.
Crystal Palace
come into the game on a run of poor results, without a win in five and 13th
in the table. We haven’t played a league game for almost a month and Sp*rs
aside, weren’t playing particularly well before our break from the Premier
League. We haven’t played well during it either but still managed to get into
the fifth round of the FA Cup and won the Club World Cup, so we shouldn’t
grumble.
We’ve had a
week off since that win, although the last week off we had didn’t appear to do
us any favours, so I wouldn’t read too much into us being ‘well rested’. We
come into the game 3rd in the table, 16 points off top-placed Man
City and with their noisy neighbours bizarrely only four points adrift from us
in fourth now.
We beat Palace in the reverse fixture at the start of the season but go into today’s game at risk of back-to-back London derby defeats away. Palace have only managed one win in their last 16 derbies in the Premier League, so that’s comforting to know. What is of slightly less comfort though, is that Palace have beaten Sp*rs and Manchester City this season, so they’ll probably have enough to take three points off us if we don’t improve significantly over our last few games. They might be short on wins but they don’t appear to be in the worst form in the world and there is no doubt they will make this a tough game for us.
There’s no trophy at the end of this, so three points needs to be motivation enough for our players this afternoon.
MANAGER’S VIEWS
Going into today’s game, Crystal Palace manager, Patrick Vieira, says “It’s a massive challenge but really exciting at the same time. We know how good [Chelsea] can be and it’s going to be a home game, we have to play with tempo, we have to play with rhythm, we have to be aggressive, we need to have all those ingredients to give them problems. We know we are capable of doing it. We have to play with excitement because the fans will be up for it. We have to be ready, we have to play well. The mistakes you make, the talent they have you can get punished straight away. If we play at the level we are capable of, we can get the crowd behind us and have important moments during the game, it’s important to take our chances in those important moments.”
Thomas Tuchel meanwhile, says “Sixteen
points [behind leaders Man City] sounds too much and is too much to where we
want to be and what we demand of ourselves but it’s the reality and a realistic
approach is also necessary. We should
not get confused in thinking about winning the Premier League and still we have
to realise that we are in a race for the top four right now, which is a huge
thing in the Premier League in general. At
the end of the season you can look back and think about the reason why it’s
like this and try to do stuff better. Of course you can also do stuff within
the season to try to improve and this is what we do but right now the focus has
to be on a realistic approach that we are in a race for top four.”
SQUAD NEWS
For
Crystal Palace, Nathan Ferguson remains out and Conor Gallagher is
ineligible to play against us.
For
Chelsea, Ben Chilwell (knee), remains our long-term absentee
and the game comes too soon for Reece James (hamstring). Mason Mount (ankle) is
also out after picking up an injury in the Club World Cup final. Ruben
Loftus-Cheek is available again.
TEAMS
CRYSTAL PALACE (Possible line-up): Butland; Ward, Andersen, Guehi, Mitchell; Kouyate, Hughes, Schlupp;
Ayew, Edouard, Zaha
CHELSEA (Possible line-up): Mendy; Christensen, Silva, Rudiger; Azpilicueta, Jorginho, Kovacic, Alonso; Ziyech,
Lukaku, Pulisic
LAST SEASON
Crystal Palace 1-4
Chelsea (10th April 2021)
CURRENT FORM (PL)
CRYSTAL PALACE: WLDLDD
CHELSEA: WDDLDW
OTHER STUFF
- Chelsea have won their last eight Premier League
games against Crystal Palace.
- Crystal Palace have managed just two league wins in
their past 13 attempts and are without a win in five.
- Chelsea’s most recent Premier League win, against Sp*rs,
was just a second win in eight top-flight games
- Crystal Palace have already beaten Spurs and
Manchester City this season.
- Chelsea have kept just three clean sheets in their
past 14 Premier League fixtures
- Crystal Palace can equal the club top-flight record
of scoring in 12 successive home matches.
- Chelsea have dropped points in four of their last
five Premier League away matches.
PREDICTION
BBC Sport: Crystal Palace 1-2 Chelsea
Sportsmole: Crystal Palace 1-2 Chelsea
