Chelsea visits Selhurst Park to start a run of seven matches in 21 days before yet another international break. They could not hope for a better opponent to start this stretch.
Chelsea return to Premier League action this weekend with a short trip to Crystal Palace. Injuries to key players before and during international break has put Chelsea in a difficult situation. As things stand, there is no other opponent Chelsea would wish more to play in such a time.
The start to Crystal Palace’s season is the joint worst start in the history of Premier League. A change of manager has not improved them so far. Their best player arguably has been Chelsea loanee Ruben Loftus-Cheek. Injuries to him and their Belgian striker Christian Benteke have not done the Eagles any favours.
Injuries have not been kind to Chelsea, either. Tiemoue Bakayoko and Danny Drinkwater arrived at Chelsea with injuries. Eden Hazard reached full fitness only recently. Alvaro Morata was injured just before the international break in the home match against league leaders Manchester City. Meanwhile, N’golo Kante was injured in France’s match against Bulgaria.
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Alvaro Morata is working hard to be fully fit before Saturday’s match. Danny Drinkwater is still short of match fitness. David Luiz is set to return after his ban following the red card against Arsenal. Michy Batshuayi had a couple of rather underwhelming outing for Belgium.
Crystal Palace have conceded 17 goals so far this season in the Premier League. In such a testing time,they are the ideal opponents for the blues. They have lost every match and have not even scored a Premier League goal this season. They have shipped nine goals in their last two matches alone.
Their manager Roy Hodgson would have used the international break to work towards improving the team. But Chelsea’s form away from home have been excellent so far this season, winning four of four. Antonio Conte, too, had plenty of time to work with the remaining players who did not have international duties.
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With the Champions League home tie against AS Roma coming up on Wednesday, Antonio Conte will prefer not to risk players who are short of fitness on Saturday. As such, the match against this Crystal Palace side in their current form is comparatively less challenging that what the Premier League normally offers. Chelsea fans will be hopeful that this match will be as carefree as it seems right now.