Palace make the short trip to south west London for another “derby” with the hope that the recent good run of form will earn us a result against Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea side. They themselves are looking to keep their title charge alive through the festive period.
Chelsea at the beginning of the season were the bookmakers heavy favourites to win the Premier League this season after the return of the “special one” who so far hasn’t quite lived up to the speculation.
They have qualified for the last sixteen of the Champions League and are currently sitting in third having only lost three games in fifteen.
The Blues brought in five new players including former Barcelona and Anzhi striker Samuel Eto’o, German playmaker Andre Schürrle and Brazilian wonder kid Willian (also from Russian club Anzhi) in the summer and spent over a whopping £65 million so there is immense pressure on Jose Mourinho to deliver the title to Stamford Bridge.
On to the Palace news this week. Ever present left back Dean Moxey limped off after just twenty five minutes in our victory over Cardiff last weekend and looks likely to miss this one. Former Reaing defender Adrian Mariappa took over at right back whilst Joel Ward stepped in on the left. There isn’t likely to be any other changes as Tony Pulis will look to the same personnel who have impressed of late.
Other injury news this week is that Jerome Thomas looks set to miss the entire festive period as his injury was worse than anticipated however Yannick Bolasie’s ban is finally over and will most likely start the game on the bench. Palace have not won a league fixture at Stamford bridge in twenty three years. Hopefully that might change this weekend.
We asked for views ahead of the fixture from Palace fans on Twitter this week and Stephen Ellis stepped forward. Here is what he told us;
The game on Saturday will be a classic tale of Premier League giants versus a newly promoted side with an added London derby atmosphere. However, despite the odds, atmosphere, and cost of Chelsea’s side (well over £150 million in transfer fees), Palace will be arriving at Stamford Bridge with one objective. Upset the bookies.
Mark Clattenburg will be officiating the Premier League fixture at Stamford Bridge for the first time since the infamous Mikel row a year ago. How will this play out? Will Palace have an unseen advantage?
One thing is for certain, listen out for the Palace faithful when they travel to Stamford Bridge, which holds just under 42,000 people. The away fans will be singing against 40,000 Blues supporters. How many stones will it take David to topple Goliath? I think just the two.
Prediction – Chelsea 1 Crystal Palace 2
The form guide in this one puts the teams on level pegging with ten points from the last five games. The home side is expected to dominate posession and plenty of that will be in the Palace half. In contrast Palace will be hoping for an ariel duel or two as thay are one of the strongest in the league in that area along with stealing the ball off the opposition. Two of the most in form players face each other in this match up, Belgian midfielder Eden Hazard and Aussie midfielder Mile Jedinak.
Make sure you have a read of our Q&A session with our friends ove at Chelsea Stats which is also on our site.
Last five meetings between the two sides;
19/03/2005 – League – Chelsea 4-1 Crystal Palace
24/08/2004 – League – Crystal Palace 0-2 Chelsea
11/03/1998 – League – Chelsea 6-2 Crystal Palace
13/09/1997 – League – Crystal Palace 0-3 Chelsea
05/03/1995 – League – Chelsea 0-0 Crystal Palace
Article written by Adam Johnson with statistics from Holmesdale Online and Who Scored.
