Premier League

Crystal Palace vs Chelsea prediction

Chelsea return to domestic action on Saturday, a week after their FIFA World Club Cup glory over in the United Arab Emirates.

Thomas Tuchel’s side have a good opportunity to make it two Premier League victories on the bounce when they travel down the road to face a Crystal Palace side that are winless in their last five.

The Eagles were held 0-0 at home by Brentford last weekend with the Bees having lost six in a row heading into that game. Patrick Vieira’s side had been held 1-1 at Norwich City in the game prior and are winless in the league in 2022.

Chelsea’s Premier League form had been poor prior to their 2-0 win at home to Tottenham Hotspur in late January; their penultimate match before travelling abroad.

Last season’s Champions League winners opened their new campaign with a 3-0 thrashing of Crystal Palace at Stamford Bridge back in August. Marcos Alonso, Christian Pulisic and Andreas Christensen were all on the scoresheet that day.

Romelu Lukaku and Kai Havertz scored the goals in the 2-1 victory over Palmeiras last weekend. Lukaku has been out of form in recent weeks but this should be a good matchup for him to get back to scoring ways in the Premier League. Ultimately though, the visitors will have a lot of goalscoring options to break down the Crystal Palace defence that has conceded three versus the likes of Liverpool and West Ham United in recent weeks.

The bookmakers must be expecting jetlag to affect Chelsea in this one as they have given very favourable odds.

Best bet: Chelsea to win is 1.72 with Betfair