England Premier League
Wednesday 27th December 2023
Kick off at 7:30pm GMT
Venue: Stamford Bridge
Match Preview:
Chelsea lost their 8th game of the season at the weekend as they went down 2-1 at Wolves. It has become very common to see the Blues lose games this season and with the budget they have, the owners they have and the manager they have this was never in the script. Chelsea come into this game in 10th place with 22 points but have fallen 5 points behind 9th and they could go down to 13th if every result goes against them this week. Recent form has seen 3 defeats from their last four and with only 50 yello cards issued so far it has been revealed they are the team with the most bookings in the Premier League.
Home form used to be very reliable for the Blues but this season they would only rank in 13th place and have won 12 points from 27. However some good news and that is that the club have gone the last two months at home without defeat and have won their last two in a row here with wins over Brighton and Sheffield United and have scored 5 goals in those victories.
Crystal Palace are a side who can normally raise their game against the bigger teams and they recently went to Manchester City and came away with a fighting 2-2 draw, that is after trailing 2-0. In the clubs last game they drew 1-1 with Brighton and have drawn 3 of their last five matches. Palace are in 15th place with 18 points and with just 3 points won from their last 15 they don’t look quite assured of staying up. They should of course do so but it only takes a run of form from a current bottom three side to put that in jeopardy and the Eagles look to have taken a couple of steps backwards in recent weeks. On the road Palace have lost just once in their last four and have drawn their last two in a row. That defeat came against Luton which was seen as a surprise.
Team News:
Chelsea: Raheem Sterling and Cole Palmer are both suspended after respectively picking up their fifth bookings of the season. Lesley Ugochukwu will be assessed for a slight knock. It’s been confirmed that Robert Sanchez will miss the next six weeks at least with a knee injury. Moises Caicedo is being tipped to return from illness, Enzo Fernandez could miss out due to his hernia. Trevoh Chabolah, Reece James Ben Chilwell, Carney Chukwuemeka, Marc Cucurella and Wesley Fofana remain sidelined long term
Crystal Palace: Odsonne Edouard remains a major doubt with an ongoing knee issue and is very unlikely to return this year. Sam Johnstone is 50/50 because of a calf strain, Chieck Doucoure has been ruled out for the season due to an Achilles injury. Rob Holding won’t return until next month because of his ankle. Jesurun Rak-Sakyi and Joel Ward are out long term with no fixed return date
Chelsea vs Crystal Palace Head to Head:
Chelsea won this fixture last season 1-0.
Chelsea have won the last 12 meetings in a row against Crystal Palace.
It’s been six years since Crystal Palace recorded a win home or away against Chelsea.
Chelsea vs Crystal Palace Prediction:
If we analyse Chelsea over the past six years we will see a side who have either been brilliant or fairly average and we are in a moment of their average form. And yet no matter what frame of mind the club have been in they have been able to beat Crystal Palace. This is why the 1.72 on a Chelsea victory looks like a very good price to us and of course they are home. We know when Chelsea click they can make these types of games look quite easy. The problem is Pochettino’s Chelsea rarely have clicked. Still we will back the Blues to get the win here but we do expect a tight game. The suspensions of Cole Palmer and Raheem Sterling do not help but Christoper Nkunku who has been able to come into this side finally after a long lay could the player can really help Chelsea go up a level, he scored in their last game and we will be backing him to follow that up in this game also.
Chelsea vs Crystal Palace Betting Tips:
Chelsea to beat Crystal Palace at 1.72
Anytime goalscorer: Christopher Nkunku at 3.25
Correct Score: Chelsea to win 1-0 or 2-0 at 7.00 and 8.00
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