Chelsea Vs Crystal Palace Match Preview

Article by Robert Wake

Saturday 14th December 2014

Summary

It’s fair to suggest, that a few short weeks ago, this would have been a nailed on home win, and in truth, given the resources of each Club, it still should be. Current form though, points to a closer contest than may have been previously been anticipated. Tony Pulis has overseen a mini renaissance at Selhurst Park since replacing Ian Holloway, and The Eagles have won their last two home games against West Ham and Cardiff City without conceding.

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Palace are still not scoring many, only 4 in their last 6 games, but neither were Sunderland or Stoke before they exposed Chelsea’s wobbly defence in the past week. What Palace under new management are yet to face, is the creativity and movement of Chelsea’s fluid midfield which continues to create plenty of opportunities, which, at present, are too often wasted.

With better finishing at Stoke, Chelsea would have been out of sight by the interval, but went in level, and conspired to lose the game in a more even second period. On more than one occasion this season, Jose Mourinho has berated his team for failing to kill off the opposition when they are dominating the game, and it is a philosophy the players need to quickly adapt to.

An interesting sub-plot to this encounter is the choice of Mark Clattenburg as the referee – not the most popular appointment for the Blues faithful it is fair to say.

History

The two Clubs have only met twice in the last decade; in Mourinho’s first season at Stamford Bridge in 2004-05. The Blues did the double of The Eagles that season on their way to the title. Chelsea won 2-0 at Selhurst Park early in the season with goals from Tiago and Didier Drogba. In the return game, Chelsea ran out comfortable 4-1 winners with goals from Mateja Kezman (2), Joe Cole and Frank Lampard. The previous meeting at Stamford Bridge was in March 1998 with Chelsea recording a resounding 6-2 victory.

Prediction

Most of Chelsea’s recent wobbles have been on the road, and they remain unbeaten in the Premier League on home soil this season. Despite the improvement shown by Palace in recent weeks, I expect The Blues to record a fairly comfortable victory in this one

Chelsea 3 – 1 Crystal Palace

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