Palace Kick Off New Year With London Derby

A brand New Year gets underway with the visit of Chelsea as the Eagles look to build on their recent good run of results which has seen them lose just once in eight league games.

 

MATCH INFORMATION

4 January 2025 – 3pm
Selhurst Park, Holmesdale Road, London SE25 6PU

 

PREVIOUS MEETING

12/02/2024 – The last time Chelsea made the short trip across London, they returned to Stamford Bridge with all three points. Jefferson Lerma got the hosts hopes up with a first half goal but the Blues levelled through Christopher Nkunku right after the break. The game looked to be heading for a draw until Conor Gallagher netted in injury time, and Enzo Fernandes grabbed another right before the final whistle.
WHO SCORED MAN OF THE MATCH – Conor Gallagher (8.8)

 

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee Tim Robinson
Assistant Tim Wood
Assistant Steve Meredith
Fourth Official Simon Hooper
VAR Paul Tierney
Assistant VAR James Mainwaring
 

TEAM NEWS

PALACE – Matheus Franca, Adam Wharton, Franco Umeh, and Rob Holding all remain unavailable. Marc Guehi returns from suspension against his former employers while Trevoh Chalobah will miss out playing against his parent club and Will Hughes misses out through injury. 

CHELSEA – Wesley Fofana, Benoit Badiashile, Mykhailo Mudryk, and Omari Kellyman all miss out while Carney Chukwuemeka, Romeo Lavia, and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall will be assessed. 

 

DISCIPLINARY RECORD

This is the section of our match preview that highlights those that have not been the best of friends with match officials as the season goes on. Of course, they all begin with a clean slate, but we will start to see those that will be heading for a ban or two as the campaign progresses.

RED CARDS – Daichi Kamada (1), Marc Cucurella (1)
YELLOW CARDS (over 4.5) – Will Hughes (7), Marc Cucurella (6), Wesley Fofana (6), Pedro Neto (6), Daniel Munoz (5), Marc Guehi (5)

 

FORM GUIDE

Last FIVE meetings between the two sides;

01/09/2024 Chelsea 1-1 Palace
12/02/2024 Palace 1-3 Chelsea
27/12/2023 Chelsea 2-1 Palace
15/01/2023 Chelsea 1-0 Palace
01/10/2022 Palace 1-2 Chelsea

Last FIVE results for Palace:

29/12/2024 Palace 2-1 Southampton
26/12/2024 Bournemouth 0-0 Palace
21/12/2024 Palace 1-5 Arsenal
18/12/2024 Arsenal 3-2 Palace
15/12/2024 Brighton 1-3 Palace

Last FIVE results for Chelsea;

30/12/2024 Ipswich 2-0 Chelsea
26/12/2024 Chelsea 1-2 Fulham
22/12/2024 Everton 0-0 Chelsea
19/12/2024 Chelsea 5-1 Shamrock Rovers
15/12/2024 Chelsea 2-1 Brentford

 

LEAGUE POSITION

Heading into the fixture, Palace are 15th in the Premier League with 20 points from 19 games played, while Chelsea are 4th with 35 points from the same amount of games. 

 

RECORD AGAINST CHELSEA

Played 65
Won 11
Drawn 16
Lost 38

 

FORM PLAYERS ACCORDING TO WHO SCORED

This is the section of our match preview where we list two players from each side that are top of the ratings by our friends over at Who Scored. Obviously, there are no ratings to share at the moment but that will soon change!

Cole Palmer 7.62
Nicolas Jackson 7.12
Ebere Eze 7.04
Daniel Munoz 7.00

 

ONE TO WATCH

NICOLAS JACKSON
FORMER CLUBS – Tilene, Casa Sports, Villarreal, Mirandes (loan)
The 23-year-old Gambian international has become the first choice striker at Stamford Bridge after a slow start to life in West London, and with the support he has from a talented group of players, he will have plenty of goal scoring opportunities. 

 

THE NUMBERS

Palace are winless in 15 league and cup meetings with Chelsea, drawing one and losing 14.

That sole draw for the Eagles was in the previous Premier League meeting at Stamford Bridge in September.

The Blues have won six successive visits to Selhurst Park, scoring 14 goals during that run.

Palace have lost just 2 of their past 11 Premier League games, winning 4 and drawing 5.

However, both of those defeats have been home London derbies, losing 2-0 to Fulham and 5-1 to Arsenal.

The South London side are seeking to win back-to-back Premier League games at Selhurst Park for the first time since a run of four between April and May last season.

Eberechi Eze is vying to become the first Palace player to score home and away against Chelsea in the same season since George Whitworth 100 years ago.

 

KEY CLASH

TYRICK MITCHELL v PEDRO NETO
The Palace full back has been in great form of late and will be up against the pacey Portugal international who has yet to find that form at Wolves that got him the move to West London. 

 

PRE-MATCH STATS

This is the section of our match preview where we keep a tally on the statistics for Palace players as the campaign continues and how they compare to other Premier League players.

Goals Jean-Philippe MATETA, Ismaila SARR 4 (36th)
Assists Tyrick MITCHELL, Will HUGHES 3 (28th)
Passes Marc GUEHI 946 (23rd)
Tackles Daniel MUNOZ 66 (1st)
Touches Marc GUEHI 1193 (31st)
Shots Ebere EZE 53 (6th)
Fouls Will HUGHES 34 (6th)
Dispossessed Jean-Philippe MATETA, Ismaila SARR 24 (25th)
Saves Dean HENDERSON 57 (6th)
Clearances Maxence LACROIX 87 (6th)
Big Chances Missed Jean-Philippe MATETA 10 (5th)

 

TEB PREDICTION

Oliver Glasner looks to have a relatively fit squad to kick off a new year and will be keen to continue the good run of form that the Eagles have been experiencing. They come up against a fellow London side that have been inconsistent of late and the defeat at Ipswich shows that they can be got at. This match up promises to be an interesting with compelling battles all across the pitch, but we thing the hosts can get at least a point from their visitors. 

PREDICTED SCORE: 1-1
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