Chelsea can make it two wins from their first three Premier League games on Sunday with the visit of Crystal Palace to Stamford Bridge. The Blues have one win from their first two games while the Eagles have lost both of their opening pair of fixtures. Although too early into the season to read too much into the EPL standings, Enzo Maresca’s side have a chance to put themselves into the early reckoning for Europe while Oliver Glasner’s men are looking to arrest an unexpectedly rocky start to their new campaign.
It has been another busy summer for Chelsea with big money spent and plenty of turnover in terms of the current squad. The Londoners remain as chaotic as ever but a thumping 6-2 away win over Wolverhampton Wanderers has undone some of the damage done by a 2-0 home loss to Manchester City. A loss to Servette in Switzerland did not prevent qualification for the UEFA Conference League which will now see the Blues traveling to places such as Kazakhstan and Greece which could prove tricky. Chelsea do have a good record against Palace with a 14-game winning streak and another success would equal City’s record of consecutive wins over Bournemouth.
As for Crystal Palace, a win could enable them to inflict two home losses in a row on Chelsea to start a season for the first time since the late 1970s. The Eagles have lost both of their first two Premier League games since the Frank de Boer days which saw them lose their opening seven before still finishing midtable. Scrapping to avoid the drop was not expected preseason given how they finished last term and a strong midweek win over Norwich City could be the start of some confidence returning to the players ahead of an uptick in form.
Here are our storylines, how you can watch the match and more:
How to watch and odds
- Date: Sunday, September 1 | Time: 8:30 a.m. ET
- Location: Stamford Bridge — London, England
- Live stream: Peacock
- Odds: Chelsea -154; Draw +333; Palace +400
Story so far
Chelsea are back to soccer matters after another eventful summer window and a thrashing of Wolves matched with a loss to City as well as a win and a loss to Servette means that this has been a mixed start to the season. Palace are not in the best early form after two losses but a midweek League Cup win has hinted at an approaching turnaround in form which should start to take them away from the drop zone.
Team news
Chelsea: Do not expect too many changes from the side which beat Wolves although Mykhaylo Mudryk could drop out. Pedro Neto was not in Geneva but he came on for the Ukraine international at Molineux and teed up Joao Felix’s goal. Noni Madueke and Enzo Fernandez could start again while Romeo Lavia and Reece James are working their way back from injury.
Possible Chelsea XI: Sanchez; Gusto, Fofana, Colwill, Cucurella; Caicedo, Fernandez; Madueke, Palmer, Pedro Neto; Jackson.
Palace: Eberechi Eze, Jean-Philippe Mateta and Adam Wharton all started against Norwich and could start again here. Chadi Riad is injured already which could be problematic after Joachim Andersen left but Marc Guehi remaining an Eagles player is a big boost. Sam Johnstone has joined Wolves so Dean Henderson is undisputed No. 1 although Matt Turner will compete with him for that starting role.
Possible Palace XI: Henderson; Clyne, Guehi, Richards; Munoz, Wharton, Hughes, Mitchell; Kamada, Eze, Mateta.
Prediction
Chelsea are up and down so far but Maresca does look like he knows who features in his strongest XI so expect to see them again here. Palace look bound to pick up under Glasner but perhaps most likely on home soil and not against a Blues side starting to find its feet. Pick: Chelsea 1, Palace 0.
