Chelsea v Palace

Stamford Bridge, Saturday 5.30pm

Timothy Fosu-Mensah

Team news

On-loan defender Timothy Fosu-Mensah returns to the Eagles squad after sitting out the defeat to Manchester United as he was ineligible to play against his parent club.

Mamadou Sakho (calf) and Wilfried Zaha (knee) are in light training and close to comebacks, along with long-term absentee Connor Wickham (knee).

Ruben Loftus-Cheek (ankle), Joel Ward (leg), Yohan Cabaye (groin) and Julian Speroni (knee) are all still out.

Scott Dann and Jason Puncheon (both knee) plus Bakary Sako (ankle) are missing for the rest of the campaign.

Chelsea midfielder N'Golo Kante is available after fainting during a training session last week, along with Tiemoue Bakayoko.

Defenders Ethan Ampadu (hamstring) and David Luiz (ankle) and midfielder Ross Barkley (hamstring) are injured.

Chelsea from: Courtois, Caballero, Rudiger, Alonso, Fabregas, Drinkwater, Kante, Morata, Hazard, Pedro, Bakayoko, Moses, Giroud, Zappacosta, Willian, Cahill, Christensen, Azpilicueta, Palmieri, Scott, Eduardo, Sterling, Hudson-Odoi.

Palace from: Hennessey, Cavalieri, Fosu-Mensah, Wan-Bissaka, Kelly, Tomkins, Sakho, Delaney, Jach, Van Aanholt, Schlupp, Souare, Townsend, Milivojevic, McArthur, Riedewald, Rakip, Lee, Zaha, Benteke, Sorloth.

Quotes

Roy Hodgson

"Normally when you come up against a team who are not having the best of times, that can be very dangerous. Chelsea are the champions of England and they'll be champions of England until a new champion is crowned. They have fantastic players, are a brilliantly run and powerful club, and have a very good manager and coaching staff.

"There aren't too many positives I can take playing Chelsea away. All you can hope for is we can somehow reproduce the performances we have put in in the last two games.

"Wilf's had a ball at his feet for a while, training solo with the rehab people and the physios. He joined in with the team today in an albeit modified session.

"He's well ahead of schedule, but it was a serious injury. It's a remarkable recovery. It will be a case of discussing with him, the doctor and the physios regarding when he's ready to come back. It's a major positive.

"All teams rely upon their decisive players, their most valuable players. So when you have a player out for anything length of time there's always a risk you'll push for him to come back earlier than he should. That's the balance I've got to get right."

Antonio Conte

"Crystal Palace, I think, lost the last couple of games and deserved more, against Tottenham and against United. They lost right at the end of the game. We must pay great attention.

"We need a good performance and we need to get three points. We are playing against a really good team with good, talented players. For sure, we need to get three points tomorrow.

"We are talking about a really good player [Zaha]. I remember in the first game earlier this season when we lost away, he scored and he created a lot of problems.

"But I think Crystal Palace is not only Zaha, Townsend, for me, is a really good player. There is Benteke. There are many good players in this squad. To see them in this position in the table is a bit strange."

Chelsea - league stats

Full league table

Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
14/10/2017	League	Crystal Palace	2 - 1	Chelsea
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

All time results

Last meeting

Palace 2-1 Chelsea

Saturday October 14 2017

Palace: Speroni, Dann, van Aanholt, Sakho, Milivojevic, Schlupp (Puncheon, 75), McArthur (Fosu-Mensah, 85), Ward, Zaha, Cabaye (Riedewald, 86), Townsend

Subs not used: Tomkins, Kaikai, Sako, Henry

Goals: Azpilicueta (og 11), Zaha (45)

Bookings: Milivojevic, Dann

Chelsea: Courtois, Luiz, Azpilicueta, Cahill, Moses (Zappacosta, 40), Alonso, Bakayoko, Fabregas, Hazard, Willian (Musonda, 65), Batshuayi (Pedro, 57)

Subs not used: Rudiger, Caballero, Scott, Christensen

Goals: Bakayoko (18)

Bookings: Bakayoko

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