Preview: Palace vs Chelsea: Injury Woes For Conte, Likely XI’s + Betting Tips

Chelsea will look to bounce back from their defeat to Manchester City when they take on Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park this afternoon.

The Blues saw an encouraging start to the new campaign come to an abrupt end with a 1-0 defeat against Pep Guardiola’s side before the international break two weeks ago.

Antonio Conte will therefore be desperate to get straight back to winning ways and they should be confident of doing so against a Palace side that sit rock bottom of the Premier League.

The appointment of Roy Hodgson as manager has done little to turn things around as the Londoners have lost all seven of their games so far with a goal difference of -17 and they face a tough task to end that run today.

Team news

Chelsea will be without influential midfielder N’Golo Kante after he was ruled out with a hamstring injury that he picked up while away with the French squad.

Conte will also be without Danny Drinkwater as he’s still nursing a calf problem so the Blues boss may be forced in to a slight tactical change with Cesc Fabregas alongside Tiemoue Bakayoko in a midfield two.

To add to Chelsea’s woes, summer signing Alvaro Morata is also out with a hamstring injury but the striker could return for next weeks Champions League clash with Roma.

Conte may decide to give Gary Cahill a rest ahead of that crucial group stage game so Antonio Rudiger could start at the back alongside David Luiz – who returns from suspension.

Palace will have Wilfried Zaha available again after he recovered from a knee injury that’s kept him out since the opening day of the season but Christian Benteke remains out with a knee injury.

Goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey faces a late fitness test after picking up a calf injury on international duty with Wales so Julian Speroni is on stand-by to step-in.

Ruben Loftus-Cheek can not play against his parent club while Scott Dann is a doubt with a hamstring injury.

Likely Line-Ups

Predicted Score

Crystal Palace 0-2 Chelsea: The Blues have lost just one of their last eight league games against Palace at Selhurst Park and I don’t see that run ending this afternoon. The Eagles look a real mess right now and are yet to even register a single goal this season so I think Chelsea will ease to a 2-0 win this weekend.

Betting Tips

Chelsea are best priced at 4/11 to win this game with the bookmakers but we can get new customers enhanced odds of 20/1 on the Blues – just click here to take advantage of these incredible odds [winning paid in free bets, max stake £1, T&C’s apply].

Here are some other bets I like the look of:

• Both teams to score NO at: 4/5 – a £10 bet would return £18
• Exact score of 2-0 Chelsea at: 11/2 – a £10 bet would return £65
• Hazard to score first in a 2-0 away win at: 14/1 – a £10 bet would return £150