Premier League leaders Chelsea will be looking to extend their winning streak to eleven games when they travel to Selhurst Park to face Crystal Palace on Saturday afternoon. Last season the Eagles pulled off a 2-1 victory at Stamford Bridge but then Chelsea got their revenge with a 3-0 away win. Chelsea have won four of the last six direct meetings but Crystal Palace will gain some confidence from their two recent victories over the Blues.
Crystal Palace have dropped to 15th place, just three points above the relegation zone, after having won just one of their last ten league matches. The impressive 3-0 victory over Southampton at the start of December seemed to signal the beginning of a good run of form for Alan Pardew's men, but the 3-3 draw at Hull City was followed by a 2-1 defeat at home against Manchester United this week. However, the Eagles did hold their own in that match and only lost due to a late goal. Jason Puncheon is back from suspension, but James Tomkins, Bakary Sako, Pape Souare, Connor Wickham, Jonathan Benteke and Steve Mandanda remain on the injured list.
Chelsea are flying and they have been doing that for quite some time now. At the end of September, they got beaten 3-0 by title rivals Arsenal and it seemed like new manager Antonio Conte will need some more time to build a successful team. But that humbling defeat was the starting point of a ten-game winning streak in the league, a run which placed Chelsea at the top of the table with a six-point cushion over their closest rivals. Eden Hazard missed this week's 1-0 victory at Sunderland and is a doubt here, while John Terry will definitely miss out through injury.
Probable line-ups:
Crystal Palace: Hennessey - Kelly, Dann, Delaney, Ward - Ledley, McArthur - Townsend, Puncheon, Zaha - Benteke
Chelsea: Courtois - Azpilicueta, Luiz, Cahill - Moses, Matic, Kante, Alonso - Pedro, Costa, Willian
My prediction: Chelsea to win 2-1.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
Crystal Palace win - 5.50
Draw - 4.20
Chelsea win - 1.55
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Comments (1)
sharpe
12/17/16, 12:12:16 AM
Palace are really in a tough streak and it looks like nothing good will come for them if they perform like in the last game against United. Despite they lost that...
Palace are really in a tough streak and it looks like nothing good will come for them if they perform like in the last game against United. Despite they lost that one in the very end they didn't created much trough whole the game except for the goal which fall after nice combination. Hopefully Palace could surprise Chelsea and make the league even more interesting but it would be very tough.
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