Chelsea: Four things to look for as Blues go to Selhurst Park

4. Can we stomach another ride on the CB merry-go-round?

How Andreas Christensen has played all but one match since the restart is beyond me. There has been exactly one performance where he has been anything other than a massive liability—ironically, against Manchester City. Even against Watford, he was featured prominently in Watford’s two best scoring chances, both at the hands of Danny Welbeck, who is apparently still a professional footballer.

A much more welcome sight was Kurt Zouma, who replaced Antonio Rudiger. Zouma is enjoying the title of Chelsea’s best centerback, mostly due to his not playing against West Ham. He was the only player in blue who had any hope of coping with Troy Deeney’s physicality, and he did so with aplomb. He also managed to do just enough to keep Will Hughes from bundling a cutback from Welbeck into the net in the 90′, which ensured a desperately needed clean sheet.

It’s probably not a coincidence that Chelsea’s two clean sheets since the restart came in Zouma’s two appearances, against Leicester City in the FA Cup and Watford on Saturday. It would be unfair to Zouma to bring Rudiger back in against Crystal Palace in his place.

So, if Zouma starts again, who should Lampard pair alongside him? Rudiger and Christensen aren’t exactly inspiring options, but they’re pretty much all Lampard has to go with—further proving Chelsea’s need to sign a center back, but that’s neither here nor there. Even though the two are very different players in terms of skillset, physicality and experience, they both offer about the same quality of goal-preventing-ness (a very real, measurable trait, I assure you).

Christensen has adopted the Gary Cahill style of backing away from the attacking player incessantly before just barely managing to stick a leg out at the last moment to stop a pass or shot, although the skill doesn’t translate to preventing opponents from dribbling past him. Rudiger is much better at sealing off opponents who try to dribble past him, but doesn’t necessarily redirect them correctly. Showing Andriy Yarmolenko—arguably the most one-footed player this side of Ricardo Quaresma—onto his left foot in the West Ham match was an unforgiveable sin.

If you combined the two together, you’d have one slightly above-average center back. Until that technology is possible, or Chelsea sign a better replacement, Lampard will have to pick one. The thought of Zaha dribbling at Christensen is utterly terrifying, so you would lean in favor of Rudiger. But then again, Christensen was a part of the glorious clean sheet kept against Watford, and there’s something to be said for retaining at least a modicum of continuity.

Whoever ends up playing, there’s really only one thing that truly needs to be figured out: who has the best chance of holding out against Liverpool and Wolves. Everything up until those matches is just an experiment, albeit with very high stakes. We all know the choices are less than ideal, but unless Fikayo Tomori reappears from the ether in the next week or so, this is the trio Chelsea will roll with for the rest of the season. There are only three combinations, and we’ve seen all of them since the restart. Crystal Palace will be another opportunity to suss out which is the least of three evils. Hopefully Lampard finds the right one on Tuesday.

What are some things you’ll be looking out for on Tuesday? Let us know in the comments or on our Twitter!