Saturday 3pm (BST) marks both Crystal Palace and Chelsea’s 8th game of the season. Two managers of the September manager of the month nominees coming up against each other in a London derby at Selhurt park is always a momentous occasion. A full house at Selhurst park ensuring a high quality atmosphere from both sets of supporters. Crystal palace lie 15th in the league table on the back of a 2-0 away loss to Hull, in comparison to high flying Chelsea who sit comfortably at 1st 5 points clear of last year’s champions having beaten Arsenal 2-0 satisfyingly at home.
Source: chelseafc.com
Chelsea have been in tremendous form, collecting 19 points from a possible 21 and are the only unbeaten side in the Premier league. They’ve been free-scoring so far this season scoring a total of 21 goals, the highest from any team. 9 of these from new man Diego Costa who has been somewhat of a revelation for Mourinho’s men. The forward has been in sensational form being governed by the expertise of Francesc Fabregas who himself is leading the assist charts. Chelsea’s second goal against Arsenal demonstrating this perfectly from the defence splitting pass to the audacious lob over Wojciech Szczesny.
Crystal Palace’s form since Neil Warnock has taken over has been fairly decent compared to the immaculate performances under Tony Pulis allowing them to finish an impressive 11th in the 2013-14 league season. They’ve however since developed well under the guidance of Neil Warnock whereas their first few games under caretaker manager Kieth Millen had them looking like early contenders for relegation. Palace were unbeaten in the league in September having drawn twice against Burnley and Newcastle (one a bore draw the other a thriller) and beating Everton away 3-2 in their best performance this season to date. However their last game a 2-0 loss to Hull came as a bit of a shock due to their very good September month.
This same fixture last season resulted in a 1-0 Palace win, courtesy of a John Terry own goal. The main issue Chelsea had last season was breaking down opposition of a lesser quality and getting caught on the counter to an extent, where opposition sides set out to defend and couldn’t be broken down by that killer pass. This season however seems to be different with the addition of Fabregas who’s been a maestro in midfield thus far, providing sublime balls into the front attackers.
The only injury for Palace is their centre back Scott Dann who has been ruled out with a knee injury sustained in the 12th minute against Hull in their last game.
Chelsea’s injury list includes Didier Drogba, Ramires and John Mikel Obi, as well as flu ridden Andre Schurrle.
Starting XI for Chelsea I predict to be as follows: Courtois; Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta; Fabregas, Matic; Willian, Oscar, Hazard; Diego Costa
My score prediction being 3-1 to Chelsea with goals from Eden Hazard, Oscar and Diego Costa, with Campbell nicking one for the hosts.
Kamal Sultan
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