Palace v Chelsea

Selhurst Park, Saturday 3.00pm

Story so far

Data supplied by the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index. Select and manage your own team of stars at fantasy.premierleague.com or with FIFA Ultimate Team for FIFA 14.

Crystal Palace fell to a 1-0 defeat at St James’ Park last time out thanks to a late Papiss Cisse header. The Eagles remain perched just above the relegation zone and face a tough test against the Blues to take anything away from this weekend.

Mile Jedinak has happily taken on the role of Palace’s midfielder enforcer this season. He would do well to mind his technique against a talent Chelsea midfield this weekend though given that he ranks first on the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index for fouls conceded with 55. The Blue possess the players to hurt Palace so their captain will have to be on his guard.

Although more noted for his ability with the ball at his feet, nonetheless Yannick Bolasie has been impressive when attempting to reclaim possession of the ball for his side. He so far has the best tackle success rate of any Palace player, winning 81% of his 42 attempted challenges this term.

Jason Puncheon remains one of the main driving attacking forces behind this Palace team, carving out chances with solid regularity. No Palace player has had more attempted shots on goal than Puncheon with 38. Puncheon is 7/1 to score at any time this weekend with 888sport.com.

A superb all-round performance from Chelsea saw them demolish Arsenal 6-0 at Stamford Bridge last weekend in what was a clear statement of intent as we approach the business end of the season.

Chelsea’s young Belgian winger Eden Hazard has been in rare form this season, developing into perhaps the most important attacking weapon at Jose Mourinho’s disposal at Stamford Bridge. He leads the league for dribbles this campaign with 116 according to the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index.

Imposing centre-half Branislav Ivanovic is always an intimidating proposition for any frontman but the Serbian doesn’t just rely on his physical presence to get the job done, his defensive technique is often outstanding as well. He currently has the best tackle success rate of any Chelsea player to have attempted more than five tackles, winning 80% of his 70 challenges this term.

Key to negating the destructive impact of the likes of Mile Jedinak this weekend for Chelsea could be the movement and interplay of their explosive front three, none more so than the dynamic Willian. He has reveled in the extra pressure placed on him by Jose Mourinho, utilising his athleticism and technique to great effect.

Currently only Eden Hazard has a better minutes per pass ratio than Willian, the Brazilian racking up, on average, a pass in the opponent’s half every 2.8 minutes he’s been on the pitch this term. Willian is 56/19 to get himself on the scoresheet this weekend with 888sport.com.

Team news

Crystal Palace duo Maraoune Chamakh (hamstring) and Dwight Gayle (ankle) are still out, so Cameron Jerome or Glenn Murray will lead the line.

Chelsea forward Samuel Eto'o is sidelined due to a hamstring injury. However, Willian is back after completing a one-match ban, but Ramires is suspended for two more matches after his red card at Aston Villa.

Former Palace loanee Ashley Cole (knee) is still missing and midfielder Marco van Ginkel (knee) is not yet fit.

Palace: (from) Speroni, Hennessey, Gabbidon, McCarthy, Dann, Mariappa, Ward, Delaney, Ledley, Bannan, O'Keefe, Dikgacoi, Bolasie, Jedinak, Guedioura, Puncheon, Ince, Thomas, Jerome, Murray.

Chelsea: (from) Cech, Ivanovic, Luiz, Lampard, Torres, Oscar, Mikel, Schurrle, Salah, Hazard, Ba, Willian, Matic, Schwarzer, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta, Blackman, Kalas.

Quotes

Roy Hodgson

"If you're looking at the balance of the two clubs and what they have and haven't got it is a very uneven contest. But football is a funny old game, if we set ourselves up well and give everything we possibly can, you never know.

"If you put our players up against their players individually I don't think there are many of our players who would get into their team. But collectively, as a group and as a team, if you are working together and putting things in place you can make it difficult for them.

"They have got some outstanding players. There is no doubt that we will have to defend well but we also have to be a threat going forward and when we get our chances we are going to have to start taking them.

"We have talked about it this week with the players, when we get in there we need to start hitting the target, there are a lot of occasions when we get in there and snatch at things.

"You need a little bit of luck along the way but you need players who are going to relish the challenge and the players have got to do that."

Scott Dann

"The disappointing thing for us is we’ve been doing well defensively but haven’t created many chances, especially when you go away to a place like Newcastle.

"Kagisho Dikgacoi had a chance at Sunderland at the end and then he had one-on-one denied at Newcastle. Yannick Bolasie hit the bar and Cameron Jerome had a couple of half-chances.

"We’re disappointed we didn’t take one of those chances but at the same time we were just undone with the goal right at the death. It was a sucker blow.

"Every game is as tough as each other in different ways. Going to Newcastle was always going to be just that, and a point would have been a great result for us, albeit we could have put our noses in front."

Glenn Murray

"It’s been two long trips to Sunderland and Newcastle, for both the players and the fans, but we appreciate the following as always. I was disappointed but I want to take the positives, and I thought we played well in the game.

"It was one of those cruel blows but we just need to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves down and go again for Chelsea. Yannick (Bolasie) and Cameron (Jerome) had a couple of good shots, plus KG had his chance but it was good we created those chances in the first place.

"We’ll be back at it this week. It hurt the defeat but we’ll go again looking to the weekend. Chelsea was going to be tough whether we had beaten Newcastle or not, that’s one of the games you look at on the calendar.

"It’s going to be tough no matter what the circumstances. We just need to prepare right and try our best this weekend."

Jose Mourinho

"When you have six days a week to prepare a match, six days to train maybe twice a day, you have conditions to improve that nobody else has.

"At the same time players have no accumulation of fatigue - you can see clearly that some of their players are not paying the consequences of (such) accumulation.

"You see freshness, you see that even players of a certain age don't need to rest for matches because they rest during the week. The season for them is a perfect season to do what they're doing."

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Chelsea - league stats

Position	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points
1st	31	21	6	4	69

Full league table

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Chelsea - current form

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
8	6	1	1	19	3

Full form table

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Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
14/12/2013	League	Chelsea	2 - 1	Crystal Palace
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

All time results

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Last meeting

Chelsea 2-1 Palace

Saturday December 14 2013

Chelsea: Cech, Terry, Ivanovic, Luiz, Azpilicueta, Hazard, Mata (Oscar, 62), Willian (Schurrle, 82), Ramires, Essien, Torres (Ba, 84)

Goals: Torres (16), Ramires (35)

Subs not used: Williams, Parr, Campana, Price

Bookings: Ivanovic, Essien

Palace: Speroni, Gabbidon, Mariappa, Ward, Delaney, Puncheon, Dikgacoi (O'Keefe, 26), Bannan (Bolasie, 51), Jedinak, Chamakh (Gayle, 88), Jerome

Subs not used: Schwarzer, Cole, Lampard, Eto'o

Goals: Chamakh (29)

Bookings: Chamakh

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