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Chelsea vs Crystal Palace score predictions: No Lukaku, no problem

By The Pride of London Staff

LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 10: Christian Pulisic of Chelsea celebrates after scoring their team's second goal during the Premier League match between Crystal Palace and Chelsea at Selhurst Park on April 10, 2021 in London, England. Sporting stadiums around the UK remain under strict restrictions due to the Coronavirus Pandemic as Government social distancing laws prohibit fans inside venues resulting in games being played behind closed doors. (Photo by Justin Tallis - Pool/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 10: Christian Pulisic of Chelsea celebrates after scoring their team's second goal during the Premier League match between Crystal Palace and Chelsea at Selhurst Park on April 10, 2021 in London, England. Sporting stadiums around the UK remain under strict restrictions due to the Coronavirus Pandemic as Government social distancing laws prohibit fans inside venues resulting in games being played behind closed doors. (Photo by Justin Tallis - Pool/Getty Images) /
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The UEFA Super Cup is officially behind us. Chelsea prevailed victorious midweek and captured its first bit of silverware this season. The European trophy provided a huge pick-me-up for the Blues ahead of their first Premier League fixture. Romelu Lukaku’s signing is another big boost to the confidence, despite the striker’s inability to play against Crystal Palace. Hakim Ziyech is out for the match with a shoulder injury and N’Golo Kante is a doubt, but after winning the Champions League last season, Thomas Tuchel’s men must feel as if they can conquer anybody—especially Palace.

Here is The Pride of London team’s predictions for the Premier League opener:

Varun Dani: 2-0 Chelsea

New season, same old Chelsea, and that’s a great thing. All the Blues need to do this season is replicate the performances we saw under Tuchel, with Lukaku being the differentiating factor. This is a young squad, one that will naturally improve as a unit from last year. The players just need to avoid getting swayed by the European Champions tag, and actually play like the champions they are, from MD1 to MD38.

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Tan Yi Hao: 1-0 Chelsea

Chelsea will probably start with a very similar XI to the one that started the UCL final last year. That means the same issues in attack are going to once again be evident, although a stingy defense should allow the Blues to ultimately come away with the narrowest of wins.

Vansh Ambashta: 2-0 Chelsea

Chelsea will create a plethora of chances and fail to convert them (not for long though). However, the Blues will be too much for Palace and the game should be a comfortable opener for Tuchel and his men.

Leighton September: 3-0 Chelsea

Tuchel will get a pretty routine opening victory of the season to start the Blues’ title push. After a long 120 minutes midweek in Belfast, the players will hope to find an extra gear or two from the Stamford Bridge faithful. Palace—under new management—will find things pretty tough against the European Champions.

Abhishek Pancholi: 3-0 Chelsea

It will be baptism by fire for Palace’s new centerback, one Marc Guehi, formerly of Cobham. The youngster has a bright future ahead of him, but his Premier League debut won’t exactly go according to plan. A rejuvenated Timo Werner will regularly leave him in the dust, on his way to scoring a couple of goals and throwing down the gauntlet to the new old boy, Lukaku. Kai Havertz will round off the scoring with a long-range effort.

Olaoluwa Nwobodo: 4-0 Chelsea

We always seem to score four against Crystal Palace. Kurt Zouma also always seems to enjoy scoring against them. The Blues will be tired from their midweek game, but their depth will more than make up for it. Many of the players that started the Villarreal game were not consistent starters last season, so there’s a chance our starting XI from last season can feature against Palace. The Blues will simply have too much from Patrick Vieira’s men.

Barrett Rouen: 2-0 Chelsea

The beginning of the season usually has some peculiar results and upsets just because people aren’t up to speed yet. A lot of players have only been in training a couple of weeks. Palace is in a bad way at the moment though and I pick the Blues no matter what because I’d never put anything else out there in the universe.

Gabe Henderson: 2-1 Chelsea

Wednesday’s Super Cup showing was not convincing in the slightest. Nevertheless, the Blues emerged victorious. Injuries will see a struggle, but ultimately the same result in the opening game of the domestic season.

Akshat Mehrish: 1-0 Chelsea

Tired legs, no Lukaku bounce yet and an old opponent with some new tricks up its sleeve. It won’t be smooth sailing for Chelsea when Crystal Palace comes to the Bridge. Hopefully, the returning home support and the elation from lifting another European trophy will provide the Blues with enough of an edge to beat the Eagles. Beat them they must, for this is as easy as it gets for the next two months.

Mike Malley: 3-1 Chelsea

Playing 120 minutes of high-level competitive football on Wednesday will not have done the Blues any favors heading into the opening weekend of the Premier League season, but the European champions should handle Palace easily. Chelsea should dominate a much weaker opposition, even without new signing Lukaku and the injured Ziyech, in what will be an incredibly important match. The Blues need to start well if they are going to compete with their rivals for the league title, and a strong showing in the London derby on Saturday is a fantastic way to begin the nascent campaign.

Kevin Peacock: 3-0 Chelsea

The good times are heading back to SW6, that’s a given. With Lukaku back in the house, the Blues finally have someone to eclipse Jorginho as top scorer. However, with the Belgian unlikely to make an appearance on the field of play, new striker buzz rubs off on the rest of the team. Off the back of Euro glory, a comfortable victory gets the Premier League season off to a flyer.

Olly Smith: 2-0 Chelsea

The Blues are going to be tired from their Super Cup exploits, but luckily for Tuchel and Chelsea they face a new, unsure, still-gelling Crystal Palace. Vieira will come good in south London, but his tenure will get off to a rocky start. Havertz and Pulisic to score.

Anthony Gatt: 1-0 Chelsea

The new season is upon us and it hopefully will be a good one for the Blues as the chase for the Premier League title begins. It all starts on Saturday afternoon against a Palace side who has a new manager in Vieira and squad that has several new players to adapt to his tactics. Therefore, I believe Chelsea will be too much for the Frenchman’s English top flight managerial debut and he will leave Stamford Bridge with nothing.

Hugo Amaya: 1-0 Chelsea

A conservative showing, but a win nevertheless. Yes, Chelsea is the Champion of Europe, and yes, more is expected of the team. However, a win is a win and Tuchel knows it. The Blues won’t struggle with possession, but will struggle to create any real chances. First three points of the season to get off to a good start nonetheless.

Nate Hofmann: 0-0 Draw

Maybe it’s a bit early to complain about conspiracies against Chelsea, but there’s no good reason this game isn’t being played on Sunday. No respect for the best team in Europe, what a joke. Ideally, that would spur the team on to show up and dominate, but everyone just looked so thoroughly exhausted by the end of the 120 minutes (or 45 for that matter) on Wednesday that it’s hard to imagine Tuchel’s side digging deep to come up with the goods if things get tricky. Not a great start but survivable.

Chelsea vs Crystal Palace predicted XI: 3-4-3 to kick off title race. dark. Next

What is your score prediction for the contest? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter!

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