Chelsea travel to Selhurst Park on Saturday to face struggling Crystal Palace.
The Eagles have had a disastrous start to their season having won none of their opening 7 Premier League games, scoring no goals in the process. They sit rock bottom of the league table with a goal difference of -17 and are well on the way to having the lowest points tally of any Premier League side in a season. They have already departed with manager Frank de Boer, and new boss Roy Hodgson will be feeling the pressure 10-fold as his side go into yet another game that they are expected to lose. In fact, Chelsea are 4/11 for a victory on 888sport.
Chelsea, despite losing their last game narrowly to Manchester City, are high flying in the table on the other hand and sit 4th. There is a real sense of positivity in the Blues camp, and a feeling that there is still much more to come from Conte’s men as the season progresses.
Striker Alvaro Morata will be out of action for around 6 weeks, a bitter blow for Chelsea but one that they can hopefully numb with the presence of Michy Batshuayi who always performs well when called upon.
The Belgian striker certainly believes that he can be a suitable replacement for the inform Morata, saying in a recent interview that he is ready to take his chance and prove to the manager why he should be playing ahead of the Spaniard when he is fit.
Chelsea will also be without N’Golo Kante, one of their most influential players. The Frenchman is out with a hamstring injury as well as Morata, and with no return date set Conte will be sweating on how serious the injury will be. His like-for-like replacement Danny Drinkwater is still out with a calf strain.
Palace have plenty of injury woes themselves. Benteke, Dann, Loftus-Cheek and Wickham are all out, while Wilfied Zaha could make his return to action after months on the sidelines.
The last time these two sides met, Palace came away as 2-1 victors in what was a classic encounter.
Despite their horrific standing in the table, Palace sit 12th in the Premier League xG table – with 7.14 expected goals. This stat shows just how poor they have been at converting their chances.
Stats also indicate that Palace are averaging the most dribbles per game in England’s top flight, with 13.3.
Chelsea are the Premier League’s bad boys so far this season though, having picked up the most red cards of any other side and averaging more fouls per game than anyone else (12.9).
Predicted XI
Courtois
Azpilicueta – Luiz – Cahill
Moses – Bakayoko – Fabregas – Alonso
Pedro – Batshuayi – Hazard
Predicted score: 0-3