Palace v Chelsea

Selhurst Park, Saturday 3.00pm

Wilfried Zaha

Team news

Crystal Palace winger Wilfried Zaha could make his long-awaited return from a knee injury for the Premier League outing.

Zaha has been sidelined since the first fixture of the season but is now ready for selection and will take a fitness test on the day of the game.

Goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey will also have his fitness assessed late after he picked up a knock while on international duty with Wales in midweek. Julian Speroni is on standby.

On-loan midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek is ineligible to play against parent club Chelsea. Scott Dann and James Tomkins, plus Bakary Sako and Jordon Mutch are fit again.

Chelsea will be without injured trio N'Golo Kante (hamstring), Danny Drinkwater (calf) and Alvaro Morata (hamstring). Young players Kyle Scott and Ethan Ampadu could be handed starting spots.

Palace (from): Hennessey, Speroni, Ward, Kelly, Tomkins, Fosu-Mensah, Dann, Sakho, Riedewald, Delaney, Schlupp, Souare, Van Aanholt, Ladapo, Townsend, Cabaye, Mutch, McArthur, Milivojevic, Puncheon, Sako, Lee, Kaikai, Zaha.

Chelsea (from): Courtois, Caballero, Rudiger, Alonso, Fabregas, Hazard, Pedro, Bakayoko, Moses, Kenedy, Musonda, Zappacosta, Willian, Batshuayi, Cahill, Christensen, Azpilicueta, Clarke-Salter, Scott, Ampadu, Eduardo.

Quotes

Roy Hodgson

"The players are still up for the fight. I've never not had that impression, even from the opening day. Out situation is to try and get better in what we want to do; to defend better as a unit and to attack better as a unit.

"That's the thing the training ground helps you to work on and get to grips with. It’s been a good two weeks training but training isn’t matches, it’s matches that count. However good training is that can be blown out the water if the result doesn’t go your way on Saturday.

"It is a large part of my job [getting the players to believe] but it would have been a large part of my job even if we were sitting here with eight or nine points, rather than zero.

"That is part and parcel of a coach's job. To a) make certain the players understand what he and the team expect of them and that they really know their roles, b) to make certain they are 100 per cent prepared for the task ahead and c) to give them the belief, faith and confidence that if they do what they're trying to do it can bring success.

"The fact that it is Chelsea doesn’t differ one iota from Man United or Man City or from Huddersfield or Southampton for that matter."

Chelsea - league stats

Full league table

Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
01/04/2017	League	Chelsea	1 - 2	Crystal Palace
17/12/2016	League	Crystal Palace	0 - 1	Chelsea
03/01/2016	League	Crystal Palace	0 - 3	Chelsea
29/08/2015	League	Chelsea	1 - 2	Crystal Palace
03/05/2015	League	Chelsea	1 - 0	Crystal Palace

All time results

Last meeting

Chelsea 1-2 Palace

Saturday April 01 2017

Chelsea: Courtois, Cahill, Luiz, Azpilicueta, Pedro, Matic (Willian, 59), Alonso (Batshuayi, 74), Kante, Fabregas (Loftus-Cheek, 89), Costa, Hazard

Subs not used: Chalobah, Terry, Begovic, Zouma

Goals: Fabregas (5)

Bookings: Cahill, Luiz, Costa

Palace: Hennessey, Schlupp, Ward, Tomkins (Dann, 45 (Delaney, 60)), Sakho, Zaha, Milivojevic, Puncheon, Cabaye, Townsend (Kelly, 60), Benteke

Subs not used: Speroni, Kaikai, Ledley, Sako

Goals: Zaha (9), Benteke (11)

Bookings: Benteke, Milivojevic

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