Chelsea vs Crystal Palace
English Premier League
Date: Saturday, 1st April 2017
Kick-off at 15:00 UK/ 16:00 CET
Venue: Stamford Bridge, London.
helsea come out of the international break leading the league by 10 points with 10 matches left to play. They have a nearly insurmountable lead and it would be a huge shock if they did not win the Premier League at this point. But they still need to take care of business and win the games they are supposed to win. They can continue to do that by beating relegation threatened Crystal Palace.
Crystal Palace are near the other end of the table. The Eagles lie just four point above the relegation zone, though their situation has improved substantially in the past month. After a loss to Stoke City on match day 25, they were second from bottom. Since then they have won their last three matches with three consecutive clean sheets. Despite their good recent form, Palace are now going into an incredibly difficult run of fixtures and will need to hope they can steal some points against top teams, like Chelsea.
Chelsea: Pedro
Chelsea’s resurgence has been headlined by the performances of Costa, Hazard, and N’Golo Kante, but other players have found their role in Antonio Conte’s 3-4-3 and thrived. One of those players has been Pedro. After starting the season behind Willian in the pecking order, the Spaniard is now on of the first names on the team sheet and has delivered with some serious goal production. The 29 year old has registered seven goals and seven assists in 1516 minutes. In other words, Pedro has contributed to a goal every 108 minutes this season.
Crystal Palace: Christian Benteke
Palace have found some form recently, but it has been more in-spite of Christian Benteke than because of him. The Belgian has not scored or assisted a goal since January 31st against Bournemouth. Benteke was Palace’s big signing of the summer and he has done reasonably well scoring nine goals, but, if Palace are going to avoid relegation, they’re going to need their big Belgian signing to step up and start scoring again.
Chelsea vs Crystal Palace: Head to Head Statistics
Chelsea crawled pass Crystal palace in the first leg of the corresponding tie. A 43rd minute strike from Diego Costa was all what the Blues needed to scoop a back-to-back wins at the Selhurst Park.
Crystal Palace came out 2-1 winners when the teams met at the Stamford Bridge last season. However, they lost to Chelsea in the four previous visits to the Bridge.
It will be worth knowing that there are no draws in the 9 Premier League meetings between these two sides. Chelsea have 7 wins as against Crystal Palace’s 2.
Chelsea vs Crystal Palace: Predictions
Without doubt, Chelsea are a scare to every opponent in the league at the moment. They Blues were beaten just three times during the 29 Premier League matches this season. Moreover, their record at home is a formidable one and are coming on the back of 10 straight wins at the Bridge.
Crystal Palace have improved a lot under Allardyce and starting picking up key results in their battle to avoid relegation. But Conte’s Chelsea are a totally different proportion all together. Expect nothing but a home win by a healthy margin.
Chelsea vs Crystal Palace: Bet Tips
Full-Time Asian Handicap: Chelsea -1.5 at the odds of 1.92 with Bet365.
Diego Costa to score any-time is a banker.
