Chelsea
have a chance to pull nine points clear at the top in the lunchtime kick-off
against struggling Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Saturday, live on Sky
Sports 1 HD.
Cesc Fabregas netted the winner in the 1-0 win at Sunderland on Wednesday,
which stretched Chelsea's winning run to 10 matches in the Premier League
and took them six points clear at the top.
If Antonio Conte's men can beat Palace, they will equal a club record 11
consecutive top-flight wins that was set in 2009.
Victories have been far harder to come by for Alan Pardew's men, who went
down 2-1 at home to Manchester United on Wednesday.
Palace sit precariously above the relegation zone and have won just six of
their last 37 Premier League games, meaning they have the worst average
points per game record of any side in English football since the start of
2016 (0.74).
Team news
Palace are without Mathieu Flamini after the midfielder suffered a groin
injury on Wednesday.
Jason Puncheon is available again to Pardew after the midfielder served a
one-match ban.
Pardew is still without long-term absentees James Tomkins, Connor Wickham,
Bakary Sako, Loic Remy, Pape Souare and Steve Mandanda.
Conte has confirmed Eden Hazard should be in contention to feature for
Chelsea after missing the Sunderland game with knee trouble.
Oscar, who is subject of transfer speculation from China, is out with
illness but Kurt Zouma and Ruben Loftus-Cheek returned to the bench against
Sunderland as unused substitutes following injury problems.
Opta stats
Palace have only mustered three goals in seven previous Premier League home
games against Chelsea and one of these was a John Terry own goal.
If Chelsea win this match they will have defeated Palace at Selhurst Park on
more occasions than any other team in the Premier League (currently five
wins).
Chelsea have lost just one of their last eight Premier League London derbies
(W4 D3 L1), but this defeat came earlier this season at Arsenal (0-3).
Christian Benteke has scored in four of his last six Premier League
appearances against Chelsea, including in his last two versus the Blues.
Pardew will take charge of his 302nd Premier League game, making him joint
10th in the all-time list of most Premier League games managed (level with
Joe Kinnear).
Chelsea are guaranteed to be top of the Premier League on Christmas Day.
They have won the league title on each of the four previous occasions they
have topped the Premier League at Xmas (2014-15, 2009-10, 2005-06 &
2004-05).
Six of the last seven teams to top the Premier League table at Christmas
have gone on to win the title that season.
Merson's prediction
I know Palace haven't enjoyed the best of times recently, and Chelsea are
playing well, but this will be a hard game for Chelsea. For me, it all
depends on Wilfried Zaha. The way of beating this three at the back system
is to get the ball out wide. They can give Chelsea a bit of a scare if they
do.
If you look at Chelsea's last two games, they haven't blown teams away. They
fell over the line against West Brom, who deserved a draw and then a world
class save stopped Sunderland getting a point.
This is a difficult game, and I don't think Chelsea are scoring enough goals
at the minute.
PAUL PREDICTS: 1-1 (Sky Bet odds 13/2)
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